- The majority of us walk this earth with the view that "I am this body" and are, therefore, ajnaanam - without knowledge of ourselves in fact. Jnaanam allows us to develop the concepts of there being something other than the body which declares "I". That part of us which never ages. This process of discrimination and understanding that the body and the ego are not the self, the that Self is something more, is jnaanam. To develop this further and to come to the understanding that everything in the world, including this body and ego are nothing but that Self anyway, is to attain vijnaanam and the Realisation of the Indivisible Truth.
- In the jnaanam of intellectual understanding that there is a Truth which we can be, there should come an imperative to become vijnaanam and know that Truth to have been present at all times and that it is free of all thought, yet is Consciousness still. We can refer to the cause and effect principle for clarity here. All this must come from something or somewhere. All this is nothing but effects and effects must have a cause. In saying this, it is also important to understand that all effects will carry that cause within them - that the cause pervades the effects. Philosophically, then, we can say that the cause appears as the effect. However, the reverse is not the case. The cause is always the cause and in its original pure state, no effects can blemish it. Clay will always be clay, no matter how the potter shapes it and when the 'effect' of pot or plate is over, clay is all that remains. Thus, in terms of the Supreme Self, the substratum upon which all 'this' appears as effects, It is blemish free stands always at that Supreme Self, one without any other.
- With jnaanam we remove ajnaanam. Light banishes darkness, and once we know something we are no longer ignorant of it. Therefore, we can say that in jnaanam, we become aware of ignorance and consider it gone. In vijnaana condition, though, with Realisation of the singleness of all, we not only have the Supreme Knowledge but it has to be accepted that the concept of ignorance exists as part of this whole also. The Self as Pure Consciousness is beyond the mind and the senses, remember, therefore cannot be 'known' in objective terms and thus is of the nature of ignorance; the True Blissful Ignorance and Ultimate Knowledge is One!
Hari OM
Application - that is what
'Workings-days' are about!
For as long as it takes to complete
it, we are going to be using today as well as Text-days to fulfil study of the
SadaachaaraH. If you have not been following that text, then use the relevant label to go back to the beginning. It is, as might be surmised from its title,
about how to go about saadhana, but also explores more of the Sanskrit philosophy; it is therefore both a 'working' as well as a 'thinking' text.
Completing the group of verses on jnaanam and vijnaanam from last
week.
