dimanche 31 mai 2015

What do you mean by Gnana?

"A value is a value for me only when I see value of the value as valuable to me" says Swami Dayananda.We are not able to follow the values as truthfulness, no-harm etc because we have not recognised the worth of such values.
Chap 13 of Bhagavat Gita talks about'values' which are termed as "gnaanam'.But this Gnaanam is entirely different from the knowledge of the ',the means and the end of teaching Vedanta.

Krishna talks about this Gnanam as the collection of qualities of the mind without which'self-knowledge' is impossible.
For any knowledge to take place we need 3 factors:-
1.The knower
2.the object of knowledge
3.The means of knowlege.
Take for example the knowledge of a sound.If I am available,sound also occurs and if I don't hear ,there should be something wrong with my ears. If acoustical tests show that my hearing is perfect,it means my mind is not attentive.
Suppose somebody is teaching calculus. All the above factors including the mind is perfect.The teacher is competent.Even the you don't understand calculus. This means the mind though attentive is not prepared or ready to absorb calculus.This Samskara, a certain discipline in maths is needed to learn calculus.
This alone is not sufficient.The words of the teacher must be understood by the student in the same sense as the teacher has understood.General definitions re not sufficient as they tend to carry subjective interpretations..For words to convey the intended meaning they should be concise and precise.

Preparing the mind for vedanta is like conducting a marriage. There are so many preconditions. Horoscope matching, mind matching, status matching, looks matching, Girl viewing, mutual agreement, getting ready for wedding, making preliminary arrangements etc etc.then only mangalasutra can be tied and the marriage gets consummated.

Similarly ,though Gita talks of a simple word'gnanam' it implies preparation of the mind for vedanta to obtain gnanam of self.

That is why Krishna elaborates 20 types of invaluable values in Chap 13 of Gita.
Sometimes we ask" tying of mangala sutra takes hardly a minute. But the preparation ranges to months or even one year.
Yes, in the same analogy we have very many steps to make our mind in preparedness to receive'Atma gnana'.
For a spiritual aspirant, practices like yogasans, meditation and pranayama may quieten a restless mind, but may not prepare the mind for vedanta.Only discovery and assimilation of values themselves constitute preparation of mind. Other things are secondary.
Now we can understand why only a handful are successful in spiritual ascension.

Jayasala 42

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What do you mean by Gnana?

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