1036
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 3, Ch. 25]
TRANSLATION
The mystic yoga system, as you have explained, aims at the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is meant for completely ending material existence. Please let me know what the nature of that yoga system is. How many ways are there by which one can understand in truth that sublime yoga?
PURPORT
There are different kinds of mystic  yoga  systems aiming for different phases of the Absolute Truth. The  jñāna-yoga  system aims at the impersonal Brahman effulgence, and the  haṭha-yoga  system aims at the localized personal aspect, the Paramātmā feature of the Absolute Truth, whereas  bhakti-yoga , or devotional service, which is executed in nine different ways, headed by hearing and chanting, aims at complete realization of the Supreme Lord. There are different methods of self-realization. But here Devahūti especially refers to the  bhakti-yoga  system, which has already been primarily explained by the Lord. The different parts of the  bhakti-yoga  system are hearing, chanting, remembering, offering prayers, worshiping the Lord in the temple, accepting service to Him, carrying out His orders, making friendship with Him, and, after all, surrendering everything for the service of the Lord. The word  nirvāṇātman  is very significant in this verse. Unless one accepts the process of devotional service, one cannot end the continuation of material existence. As far as  jñānti  are concerned, they are interested in  jñāna-yoga , but even if one elevates oneself, after a great performance of austerity, to the Brahman effulgence, there is a chance of falling down again in the material world. Therefore,  jñāna-yoga  does not actually end material existence. Similarly, regarding the  haṭha-yoga  system, which aims at the localized aspect of the Lord, Paramātmā, it has been experienced that many  yogīs , such as Viśvāmitra, fall down. But  bhakti-yogīs , once approaching the Supreme Personality of Godhead, never come back to this material world, as it is confirmed in the  Bhagavad-gṭta .  Yad gatvā na nivartante : upon going, one never comes back.  Tyaktvā deham punar janma naiti : after giving up this body, he never comes back again to accept a material body.  Nirvāṇa  does not finish the existence of the soul. The soul is ever-existing. Therefore  nirvāṇa  means to end one's material existence, and to end material existence means to go back home, back to Godhead.
Sometimes it is questioned how the living entity falls down from the spiritual world to the material world. Here is the answer. Unless one is