Jnana is wisdom and Jnana Yoga is the path of knowledge to reach the Absolute. In many forms of spiritual realization God is held as an object apart from the subject. It is only due to ajnana (ignorance) that the atman (soul) imagines it is different from the Absolute. The Jnana Yoga discipline holds that God is not to be worshipped as an object different from the Self.

Jnana Yoga with its intellectual and philosophical approach helps one to lift the veil of maya (delusion) and attain perfection. The Upanishads which expound the Vedas (Hindu scriptures) and the Bhagavad Gita lay much emphasis on jnana as the only way to salvation. 

Great thinkers of the past, however, elucidate how karma produces jnana and thus prepares the way for the attainment of self-realization. They show how karma acts as an indirect instrument of liberation.