knowledge and Progress

20 November 1966 DMC, Patna

By Shrii Shrii Anandamurti

CONTD. FROM PREVIOUS MONTH

Worldly knowledge, the confusion of knowledge, is in its first stage physico-psychic, and then psychic. That itself is translated into the physical world, hence it is psychophysical. And what is the source of this physico-psychic knowledge? – let us see how far it is authentic. You derive jinána from books. You will read “Lahore is the capital of the Punjab” in a book twentyseven years old. But this does not stand correct today. This is because the source of physical knowledge is bound up by time, space, and person. With the change of time, space, and person, physical knowledge will change. Hence it is not a permanent knowledge. It is based on falsehood.

There can be still one more flaw in the source of physical knowledge, and that is a printing mistake. Because of it you read “Lahore” as “Labore”. Next, there can be something wrong with your eyes, also, which causes you to read “Lanore”. These things provoke laughter in the audience.

Hence because of defects in the different media, this knowledge will be wrong knowledge. If with this very knowledge a person is full of vanity, is that person not a firstclass fool?

This physio-psychic knowledge has value to some small extent in the physical world. But its value is always changing. The theory which is appreciated today changes tomorrow. Hence every knowledge in the world – every physio-psychic knowledge – is defective. To be proud of this kind of knowledge is not at all the job of the wise. It is better to say, “I do not know anything.”

So what is true knowledge?

True knowledge is the knowledge of that object which never undergoes any metamorphosis due to changes in time, space, and person.

Everything in the world is causal; that is, the effect is followed by the cause, and the cause by the effect. It goes on like this. The effect of one phase becomes the cause of the next. This is known as sadrsha parińáma in Tantra. As long as we are under temporal, spatial and personal factors, the cause-and-effect factor will work. Where the cause-andeffect factor works, there only imperfection exists. One cannot be proud [of] the knowledge springing out of that source.

It is said in the Vedas, “I don’t speak [about what] I don’t know, nor do I speak [about what] I do know. Because the Transcendental Entity is known only by the person who knows that Paramátman is beyond knowing and not knowing.”

This is because knowing is a particular psychic projection coming within the scope of time, space, and person. And not knowing is another psychic projection coming within the scope of time, space, and person.

The Supreme Entity is beyond time, space, and person. It being non-changing, if a person makes an effort to acquire spirituo-psychic knowledge instead of physiopsychic, in order that the source of his or her knowledge be not the external physicality but rather internal spirituality, in that case that knowledge will be a perfect one.

What happens in the case of spirituo-psychic ss=hl highlight=true>knowledge is that though its source is absolute, its subject is relative, as the mind works within the scope of relativity. The source of spirituo-psychic ss=hl highlight=true>knowledge is absolute, the only absolute. When humans start acquiring ss=hl highlight=true>knowledge, they should not endeavour for physio-psychic ss=hl highlight=true>knowledge, on the contrary they should endeavour for spirituo-psychic ss=hl highlight=true>knowledge. In spirituo-psychic ss=hl highlight=true>knowledge, in the first phase there is more of psychic than spiritual. But later on, when mental concentration is gained in and there is advancement in sádhaná, the spiritual increases and the psychic decreases. And when gradually the proximity to spirituality increases, the psychic is completely eliminated, and only the spiritual exists. The final, terminating, point of this spirituo-psychic ss=hl highlight=true>knowledge is spiritual ss=hl highlight=true>knowledge, and that alone is ss=hl highlight=true>knowledge. That is the real ss=hl highlight=true>knowledge which does not change.

All physical, physio-psychic, psychic, and psycho-physical knowledge is not knowledge, but the confusion of knowledge. When humans realize that that so-called knowledge is of no value to them, then alone do they surrender to Parama Puruśa [Cosmic Cognition]. As long as people have the desire to acquire all relative knowledge, and try to do so, those people think themselves to be persons of letters, and refuse to surrender at the feet of Cosmic Cognition. When people’s vanity becomes powdered down by different blows, they realize that their approach to knowledge was a defective one. Then they surrender, and their egos are dashed to pieces. The greatest knowledge in the realm of physicality and mentality is that all the knowledge acquired by one so far is false. This physical knowledge is like the leaf of a shala tree [a tall evergreen with large leaves] on which people take meals. As long as you have not eaten, there is a value in the leaf, but the moment you have finished your meal, the leaf goes into the dust bin to be licked by the street dogs. When you come to realize that this physical knowledge of yours is only worth licking by a dog, then devotion will arise in you. Then you will acquire true knowledge.

What is the nature of the psycho-spiritual approach through which one acquires spirituo-psychic knowledge?

When the physical mind reaches the zenith of subtlety, that is known as physio-psychic knowledge. There the value of physio-psychic knowledge starts. When one is established in psychic knowledge, then there is the expression of the psycho-physical in it. Likewise, when psychic knowledge reaches the zenith of subtlety, it comes in contact with spirituality, and the point where spiritual knowledge or spirituopsychic knowledge functions in the mental scope, is alone said to be spirituo-psychic knowledge. As matter is made to be the end of life in acquiring physical knowledge (fit to be thrown into the dust bin), so for acquiring spiritual knowledge, Paramátman should be made the end. Then alone will people get real knowledge. (1)

How is it possible to make Paramátman the end of your life? Paramátman is the subject for the whole of the Cosmos, and the latter is His object. He is the Supreme Subjectivity, you are His object. It is not possible to make Him your object, as you are His object. Then what to do? You have to take the ideation that He is always witnessing you. The wise do not take Paramátman as their object exactly, but rather think that they are being witnessed by Him. “Paramátman is not my object; I am the object of Paramátman.” When this feeling is constantly there, always there, in a person, the name of this stage is dhruvasmrti. That you are the object of Paramátman is known to you, but you do not remember this all the time. When through sádhaná a person never forgets that Paramátman is always witnessing him or her, this is named dhruvasmrti. This alone is spiritual knowledge. In this stage alone does a person get true knowledge.

This spiritual knowledge can be translated into the mental sphere as well as into the physical sphere. If a person is willing to translate it, he or she should do so, for that will bring a lot of good to the world. This alone is real knowledge. With this alone, progress is possible. The most learned person is one who understands that he or she is not at all learned.

You are spiritual aspirants. You must always remember that physico-psychic knowledge is needed only in the physical world. But when [spiritual knowledge] is acquired in the individual life, then it is no longer required.

This very spiritual knowledge is alone devotion; that is, knowledge finally transforms itself into devotion after constant efforts; that is, when knowledge realizes that nothing is to be effected by it, then alone does it surrender to devotion. When knowledge surrenders to devotion, that is spiritual knowledge.

Hence remember that once you have got devotion, you have got everything. If Paramátman asked you your demand, you should demand nothing, and if at all God is pleased to give you something, you should ask for parábhakti [absolute devotion].

20 November 1966 DMC, Patna