Cleaning the mind of its impressions and influences, and developing a new awareness is the subject of jnana yoga.

Jnana yoga and rational thinking is supported by the components of shuddhata and pavitrata, purity. Without shuddhata, jnana yoga only remains jnana, knowledge and knowing. You know so many things but they are never applied.

You have read and learnt, that is jnana. However, it is when the purity of intention is there to apply that learning, when you decide, ‘I make that effort with the truest intention in my life’, that it becomes jnana yoga. When that knowledge is applied, it becomes practical wisdom.

Jnana yoga has two components: the first is discovering purity and the second is knowing and discovering how to deal with yourself, how to experience yourself. Jnana yoga will connect you to vidya, and it is living that vidya which will bring positivity in life.

Until you live the knowledge, you are just walking in the maze of your own mind and mental creations. Therefore, the purpose of jnana yoga is connection with vidya. In order to be true to vidya, you have to identify the aim and purpose of vidya. The aim and purpose of vidya is always atma shuddhi, self-purification.

It is this idea of self-purification that has to be developed.

Ganga Darshan Vishwa Yogapeeth, Munger, 2 November 2015

From the book “Yoga Chakra 3, The Seven Foundations of Jnana Yoga”, pg. 24, Sw. Niranjanananda Saraswati