This summary is about the four paths of the Gita: action, knowledge, meditation and devotion. It is the seventh stop on Begin the Gita. Before it is Action Without Claiming the Fruit, and after it comes The Final Counsel: Surrender, Think, Choose.
The answer in one line
Karma yoga, jnana yoga, dhyana yoga and bhakti yoga do not compete with one another. They complete one another. Every "better" in the Gita has its own ground, that is, what is being compared with what. And in a nearby verse the other path is shown reaching the same goal.
Begin at the door that is easy for you. The others come along slowly.
What confusion this answers
Sometimes the Gita calls action higher, sometimes knowledge, sometimes meditation, sometimes devotion. Is the Gita speaking against itself? Or is only one path right and the others for the weak?
The Gita gives the list of paths three times
In the second chapter there are knowledge, meaning the wisdom of Sankhya, and action, meaning yoga (Gita 2.39). In the third chapter there are the discipline of knowledge and the discipline of action, according to the seeker's nature (Gita 3.3). In the thirteenth chapter there are meditation, knowledge and action (Gita 13.25). And in the twelfth chapter there is devotion, with its whole ladder (Gita 12.2, Gita 12.8–12).
The list grows and does not shrink. Devotion is added, and the old paths are not dropped. In the eighteenth chapter the lists begin to join. Worship through one's own action brings perfection (Gita 18.46). By devotion one truly knows the Lord (Gita 18.55). One who does all actions while taking refuge reaches the eternal abode (Gita 18.56). And the last word is refuge (Gita 18.66).
Knowledge and action: different method, same stage
In verse 5.1 Arjuna asks: of renunciation and karma yoga, which is surely better? The Lord says both give the supreme good, but for one still engaged in action, karma yoga is better (Gita 5.2).
One who calls the two different is of raw understanding (Gita 5.4). The place reached by knowledge is reached by action too, and one who sees the two as one sees rightly (Gita 5.5).
The Lord does not say the method is one. He says the stage is one. The word that comes is "one", not "better", so where the goal is one there is no question of winning or losing.
"Renunciation" does not mean running from work. The true renouncer is one who does his duty without taking the fruit as support (Gita 6.1). Nobody is freed merely by not acting (Gita 3.4).
Each comparison has its own ground
Verse 3.3 compares the discipline of knowledge with the discipline of action. The measure is the seeker's nature. Both are given, with no high or low.
Verse 5.2 compares renunciation of action with karma yoga. The measure is who is still engaged in action. For him karma yoga is better.
Verse 6.46 compares the yogi with the ascetic, the learned and the ritualist. The measure is completeness of practice. The yogi is higher, because the other three are forms of incomplete practice.
Verse 6.47 speaks of the devotee among yogis. The measure is union and faith. One who worships with faith, his mind joined to the Lord, is the best.
Verses 12.2 and 12.5 compare the devotee of the Lord with form and the seeker of the unmanifest. The measure is ease for the embodied and staying in the Lord. Devotion is higher, but those of the unmanifest also reach Him (Gita 12.3–4), though the road is hard (Gita 12.5).
And verse 12.12 compares practice, knowledge, meditation and giving up the fruit. The measure is how quickly peace comes. After giving up the fruit comes peace at once.
There are three questions to test any "better". First, who is being compared, the seeker in front of Arjuna or everyone? Second, on what ground: nature, goal, completeness of practice, or difficulty of the road? Third, what does the next verse add? Often the next verse shows the other path reaching the same place.
So "karma yoga is better" and "the devotee is highest" are both right. In the first, one person has two roads before him. In the second, the question is union among all firm yogis.
The ladder from where you stand now
This is the ladder of verses 12.8 to 12.12. The first step is to set mind and intellect on the Lord. This is devotion (Gita 12.8). If you cannot, practise bringing the mind back again and again. This is a form of dhyana yoga. The mind will wander, and bringing it back again and again is the practice (Gita 12.9). If even practice does not come, do action for Me, action with offering (Gita 12.10). If even this cannot be done, give up the fruit of all actions (Gita 12.11). And verse 12.12 gives the comparison: knowledge is better than practice without understanding, meditation than knowledge, giving up the fruit than meditation, and right after giving up comes supreme peace (Gita 12.12).
Commentators read verse 12.12 in two ways. One is a rising order of depth, where each step completes the one before. The other is an order of ripening: practice without understanding stays dry, understanding settles into meditation, and meditation ripens into giving up the fruit. In both, the firm point is that peace comes when the grip on the fruit goes, and what is given up in the end is the fruit, not the action. This ladder is not for climbing to get a holiday from work. The step of action and offering stays in the middle.
The Gita's own caution for each path
Action may go astray by clinging to the result. The Gita's caution is to give up the fruit and offer the work (Gita 2.47, Gita 9.27, Gita 12.10–11).
Knowledge may go astray in dry information, or in the burden of leaning on the body. The Gita's caution is to go to a teacher, with a bow, questions and service, and not to see knowledge as apart from action (Gita 4.34, Gita 5.4, Gita 12.5).
Meditation may go astray in withdrawing from the world. The Gita's caution is to do duty without attachment, and to hold union with the Lord as the goal (Gita 6.1, Gita 6.47).
And devotion may go astray in having feeling without character. The Gita's caution is to be free of hatred, a friend to all and compassionate (Gita 12.13–14, Gita 9.27).
Devotion is not only the pleasure of feeling. Character and work stay joined to it. A leaf, a flower, a fruit, water, whatever the devotee gives with love, the Lord accepts (Gita 9.27).
The main points to remember
Four doors, one house
Each door has its own praise, its own caution and its own first step.
The Gita calls no path high in empty air
Every praise is for one person, on one ground, and nearby the goal of another path is also told. So neither "there is a clash" nor "only one path is right" comes out of the verses.
Two readings in the devotional traditions
Streams that stress knowledge say all paths reach the same state. Streams that stress devotion say the highest measure is union and all paths are completed in it. They agree that no path is dropped.
Buddhi yoga is not a fifth path
It is the steady understanding that runs through every path (Gita 2.39).
Take the step that is within reach now
Set mind and intellect on the Lord (Gita 12.8). The other paths join along with that step, because action, knowledge, meditation and devotion are incomplete without one another.
Common misunderstandings
The first misunderstanding is that only one path is right. That is not so. The Lord Himself calls the understanding of one who sees them apart raw (Gita 5.4–5).
The second is that devotion means leaving work. That is not so. The Gita's devotee worships through action (Gita 12.10, Gita 18.46) and stays in refuge while acting (Gita 18.56).
The third is that once knowledge has come, devotion is not needed. That is not so. The Lord is truly known through devotion (Gita 18.55), and the road of the unmanifest is hard for the embodied (Gita 12.5).
The fourth is that meditation means leaving the world. That is not so. The true yogi does duty (Gita 6.1), and no one is freed by leaving action (Gita 3.4).
The fifth is that worship of the unmanifest is a wrong path. That is not so. They too reach Him (Gita 12.3–4), only the road is hard.
And the sixth is that the perfect devotee may leave work. That is not so. Work goes on, and the claim of "mine" goes.
If you have to explain it in thirty seconds
In the Gita action sometimes looks higher, sometimes knowledge, sometimes meditation, sometimes devotion. But this is no clash, because each time the comparison is between different people and on a different ground. The Lord Himself says the stage of knowledge and action is one, and that one who takes them apart has a raw understanding. For one who cannot set the mind directly on the Lord there is a ladder: practice, then offered action, then giving up the fruit. Begin at the door that is easy for you. All four doors open into one house, and the house is named refuge.
Related hubs: Begin the Gita (path) · Action Without Claiming the Fruit (before) · The Final Counsel: Surrender, Think, Choose (next) · Renunciation or Karma Yoga? · Devotion or the Unmanifest · The Ladder of Devotion · The Devotee Dear to the Lord · Buddhi Yoga: The Resolute Intellect · One's Own Duty