Upadesa Saram - Post 31

Verse 27

(Continued….) 

ज्ञानवर्जिताऽज्ञानहीनचित् |

ज्ञानमस्ति किं ज्ञातुमन्तरम् || २७ ||

jñānavarjitā'jñānahīnacit |

jñānamasti kiṁ jñātumantaram || 27 ||

Knowledge abandoned, ignorance abandoned, Consciousness is.

Is there knowledge to know difference?

The Self which illumines all the external objects ranging from the intellect, the mind, the ego, the sense organs and the various external sense objects is of the very nature of Consciousness or illumination. As the Sun doesn’t require any other light to illumine itself, similarly the Self doesn’t require any other light or knowledge to illumine itself. 

The great Upanishadic verse found in Mundaka, Katha  and Svetashwatara Upanishad says:

Na tatra sooryo bhaathi na Chandra taarakam na ima vidhyutho bhaanthi kutoyam agnih

Tameva bhaantham anubhaathi sarvam tasya bhaasa sarvam idam vibhaathi

The Sun doesn’t shine there (in the Self), neither does the moon or the stars. There the lightning also doesn’t shine, then how can Fire shine??? It’s own shineness others follow (meaning that it’s illuminations others take from it) and it shining others shine.

Then how come the Self is not known by everyone?

Everyone knows the Self – there is no one who doesn’t know the Self. But there are very few who know that they know the Self, who know that “I am the Self”. Others due to ignorance don’t know their own real nature of Self or Consciousness. 

Upanishads tell two beautiful stories about realization and that realization is not something new to be attained but realizing one’s own real nature of Consciousness through removal of ignorance which obstructs the Self, being known as one’s own real nature.

A lioness who was pregnant saw a flock of sheep and she pounced over the sheep. At that time, she gave birth to a lion cub and died on the spot. Thus, the lion cub was amongst the young sheep. The cub grew along with the sheep and behaved exactly like a sheep. 

Then one day a lion saw this cub amongst the sheep and was surprised. The lion then caught hold of the cub which then started to cry like a sheep!!! It took the cub to a river and said “See yourself and see me in the river”. The cub watched the river and saw that he was very much like the lion only. Suddenly realization dawned and it realized that it is not a sheep but a lion. Then it started roaring like the lion and started behaving like a lion.

The above story is illustrated to show that the cub never was a sheep, it never was converted to a sheep. But it didn’t know its own real nature of a lion and hence considered itself as a sheep. But when a person like Guru came to it and told that “You are a lion”, it realized its own very nature of lion.

Similarly the Self is always present and a person is already that only. But this has been forgotten and all activities including study of scriptures and contemplation on Brahman or the Self are all illusions only – they are performed in order to remove the ignorance which obstructs one to realize his own very nature of Self.

Another story illustrated in Panchadashi of Vidyaranya is the story of ten fools.

There were once ten fools who were disciples of a Guru. They wanted to go to a village and hence asked permission from the Guru and started going to the village. On the way, they had to cross a river. They crossed the river. But then they had a doubt whether everyone had reached the shore safely or anyone was drowned. Hence they decided to take a count of everyone. 

So, one person started counting. He counted till 9 but forgot to count himself. Then another person also counted and he too forgot to count himself. Thus, they thought that one person had died and started crying and weeping over the dead person. 

Then a passerby stopped and asked them what was the problem and he told them that he would count. He then counted all ten. They were now little bit happy, but not yet convinced. So, the passerby told the first person to count. He counted till 9 and then the passerby told the person “You are the Tenth”. Hearing this, they were all rejoiced and very happy.

The passerby (the Guru) made each one of the 10 persons count the other nine and then the Guru asked the person counting to turn the finger to his own self and said, “You are the 10^th person".

Everyone has forgotten about the Self – one’s own real nature and are trying to find God in the external world forgetting the reality that the Self is the God, God is one’s own real nature of Consciousness.

When this ignorance is removed through the knowledge of contemplation on the reality, the reality of Self shines forth as self-luminous Bliss, one without a second.  Thus, the Self is beyond both concepts of ignorance and knowledge & also there requires no external knowledge or medium to know itself.

That Self we all already are. This knowledge or realization that “I am the Self and everything that is seen is only an illusion in the Self” needs to be realized through removal of ignorance which vanishes the moment its source is sought out and through contemplation on the reality.

How, upon attaining SELF KNOWLEDGE, both knowledge (the process of knowledge, the subject of knowledge, the object of knowledge) as well as ignorance is abandoned, is beautifully given in the following Atma Bodha verse: 

अज्ञानकलुषं जीवं ज्ञानाभ्यासाद्विनिर्मलम् ।

कृत्वा ज्ञानं स्वयं नश्येज्जलं कतकरेणुवत् ॥ ५॥

AJNANA KALUSHAM JEEVAM 

JNANA ABHAASAAT VINIRMALAM

KRUTVA JNAANAM SVAYAM 

NASHYET JALAM KATAKA RENUVAT

(Constant practice of knowledge purifies the Self (‘Jivatman’), stained by ignorance and then disappears itself – as the powder of the ‘Kataka-nut’ settles down after it has cleansed the muddy water.) 

The exposition of kataka nut is covered in Atma Bodha Post - Post 12.

Love.