Text 28]
Entanglement in Fruitive Activities
1395
TRANSLATION
The greatest common understanding for all yogīs is complete detachment from matter, which can be achieved by different kinds of yoga.
PURPORT
There are three kinds of yoga, namely  bhakti-yoga ,  jñāna-yoga , and  aṣṭāṅga-yoga . Devotees,  jñānīs  and  yogīs  all try to get out of the material entanglement. The  jñānīs  try to detach their sensual activities from material engagement. The  jñāna-yogī  thinks that matter is false and that Brahman is truth; he tries, therefore, by cultivation of knowledge, to detach the senses from material enjoyment. The  aṣṭāṅga-yogīs  also try to control the senses. The devotees, however, try to engage the senses in the service of the Lord. Therefore it appears that the activities of the  bhaktas , devotees, are better than those of the  jñānīs  and  yogīs . The mystic  yogīs  simply try to control the senses by practicing the eight divisions of  yoga—yama ,  niyama ,  āsana ,  prāṇāyāma ,  pratyāhāra , etc.—and the  jñānīs  try by mental reasoning to understand that sense enjoyment is false. But the easiest and most direct process is to engage the senses in the service of the Lord.
The purpose of all  yoga  is to detach one's sense activities from this material world. The final aims, however, are different.  Jñānīs  want to become one with the Brahman effulgence,  yogīs  want to realize Paramātmā, and devotees want to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness and transcendental loving service to the Lord. That loving service is the perfect stage of sense control. The senses are actually active symptoms of life, and they cannot be stopped. They can be detached only if there is superior engagement. As it is confirmed in  Bhagavad-gītā ,  param dṛṣṭvā nivartate . The activities of the senses can be stopped if they are given superior engagements. The supreme engagement is to engage the senses in the service of the Lord. That is the purpose of all  yoga .
TEXT 28
शानमेकं पराचीनैरिन्द्रियैर्त्रह्म निर्गुणम् । अवमात्यर्थरूपेण भ्रान्त्या शब्दादिधर्मिणा ॥२८॥
jñānam ekam parācīnair indriyair brahma nirguṇam avabhāty artha-rūpeṇa bhrāntyā śabdādi-dharmiṇā