Upadesa Saram - Post 30

Verse 27

ज्ञानवर्जिताऽज्ञानहीनचित् |

ज्ञानमस्ति किं ज्ञातुमन्तरम् || २७ ||

jñānavarjitā'jñānahīnacit |

jñānamasti kiṁ jñātumantaram || 27 ||

Knowledge abandoned, ignorance abandoned, Consciousness is.

Is there knowledge to know difference?

Which means, 

Consciousness is devoid of the thought or Vritti of ignorance and knowledge also. Is there any knowledge other than the Self to know the Self?? There is not (The Self is self-knowing and hence doesn’t require any special knowledge to be known).

Maharshi is explaining here the inherent nature of the Self which is knowledge or Consciousness called Chit. 

Thought-based Knowledge & Self-knowledge: 

Thought-based knowledge is secondary; Self-knowledge is primary. Thought-based knowledge is on a relative plane; whereas Self-knowledge is absolute. 

Secular knowledge is thought-based. That does not mean that it is of no use; it has its place in governing all our interactions in the world. It brings objects to our awareness. In fact, we cannot conduct any business in the world without thought-based knowledge. And until we attain Self-knowledge, it is all we have in our mind. 

In the realm of thought-knowledge one can say, “I know what I know, and I know what I do not know.” 

Another aspect of thought-knowledge is that it changes. “What I know" can become "What I do not know", and vice versa. In other words, knowledge of objects is also time dependent. It can be forgotten, or it can change with time. Knowledge can become invalid under new conditions. 

Thought-knowledge has another interesting feature: What we call knowledge today can become ignorance tomorrow, and the other way, too. As our experience and factual information changes, so do the thoughts change with regard to a particular object. A person thought to be a criminal today, could be declared innocent tomorrow when more facts are unearthed. 

The point being made in the context of this verse is, “What is the worth of knowledge in such a case? It is better that we don’t give it so much of importance. All that we learn in books can be forgotten. That is not the knowledge we are after.” 

In the case of Self-knowledge it can never become ignorance again. Its very nature is knowledge. This is the difference between true knowledge of the Self and secular knowledge. When we realize the Self, we truly know. It is not something that can be forgotten. For it is not a thought; it is our very being. Our quest for knowledge is really a quest for this permanent, unchanging basis of knowledge. It can never be satisfied with the outer, thought-based knowledge. 

SELF LUMINOUS

  

A person when inside a dark room doesn’t need any light to know his own existence. He doesn’t need to ascertain from another person whether 'I exist or not'. This is what is called self-luminous nature of the Self.   

To be continued…

Love.