Gyana Yoga - Realizing The Bliss Of Knowledge

Posted on March 3, 2008 - Filed Under Arts and Entertainment

The greatest teacher of the Vedanta philosophy was Shankaracharya. By solid reasoning he extracted from the Vedas the truths of the Vedanta (the word means the end of all that is to be known), and then built up the wonderful system of gyana, knowledge, that is taught in his commentaries. He unified all the conflicting descriptions of Brahman and showed that there is only one Infinite Reality. He showed too that as man can only travel slowly on the upward road, all the varied presentations are needed to suit his varying capacity.

We find something akin to this in the teachings of Jesus, which he evidently adapted to the different abilities of his hearers. First he taught them of a Father in heaven and to pray to him. Next he rose a step higher and told them, “I am the vine, you are the branches,” and lastly he gave them the highest truth: “I and my Father are one”, and “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you”. Shankara taught that three things were the great gifts of God: (1) human body, (2) thirst after God, and (3) a teacher who can show us the light. When these three gifts are ours, we know that our redemption is at hand. Only knowledge can free and save us, but with knowledge must go virtue.

The essence of the Vedanta is that there is but one Being, and that qualitatively, every soul is that Being in full, not a part of that Being. The whole of the sun is reflected in each dew-drop. Appearing in time, space and causality, this Being is man as we know him, but behind all appearance is the one Reality. Unselfishness is the denial of the lower or apparent self. We have to free ourselves of this miserable dream that we are the bodies. We must know the truth, “I am He”. We are not drops to fall into the ocean and be lost; each one is the whole, infinite ocean, and will know it, when released from the fetters of illusion. Infinity cannot be divided; the “One without a second” can have no second, all is that One. This knowledge will come to all, but we should strive to attain it now, because until we have it, we cannot really give mankind the best help. The Jivamukta (‘the living free’ or the one who knows) alone is able to give real love, real charity, real truth, and it is truth alone that makes us free. Desire makes slaves of us. It is an insatiable tyrant and gives its victim no rest; but the Jivamukta has conquered all desire by rising to the knowledge that he is the One and there is nothing left to wish for.

The mind brings before us all the delusions – body, sex, creed, caste, bondage; so we have to tell the truth to the mind incessantly, until it is made to realize it. Our real nature is all bliss, and the pleasure we know is but a reflection, an atom, of that bliss we get from touching our real nature. That is beyond both pleasure and pain. It is the “witness” of the universe, the unchanging reader before whom turn the leaves of the book of life.

Through practice comes Yoga, through Yoga comes knowledge, through knowledge comes love, and through love, bliss.

Tags: Bliss., Gyana, heaven, Knowledge, Yoga

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