JNANA.......INCOMPARABLE

[Guest guest]

Acquisition of Jnana <br>All of us should strive

to acquire Jnana. It is only then that we shall be

able to endure any kind of suffering. No man can

escape suffering in some form or other. Each of us has

his or her share of suffering. We may think that a

wealthy person, or a highly placed in life, is free from

cares and anxieties, and, so thinking may covet that

wealth or that status in the belief that we can thereby

get rid of our worries. But if you ask those persons,

they will unburden to you their tale of woes. In fact,

every man thinks that his suffering is the greatest,

even as he thinks that he is the most handsome or the

most wise. No person dares to express the latter two

feelings openly; but each person thinks that his

sufferings are greater than the sufferings of others and

likes to parade them with a view to eliciting sympathy

from others. In a sense, suffering seems to be our

birth-right. Suffering is the fruit of our actions in previous

births. So when we came into the world in the present

birth, we came with the seeds of suffering deeply

implanted into our being. There is no escaping from

suffering. <br>But it is in us to blunt the edge of

suffering. An idiot or a lunatic, a Jada an Unmatta, does

not "suffer" as we do. He becomes impervious to

suffering. But when this man is cured of his idiocy or

lunacy, as the case may be, and he is normal like us, he

becomes aware of suffering and begins to suffer as we do.

Sleep is the soothing balm for all suffering. We are

oblivious to suffering in dreamless sleep or Sushupti. The

consciousness of suffering in waking life is negated in sleep.

But we relapse into this consciousness when we wake

up from sleep. The Jnani "sleeps to suffering" even

when he is awake. It is not that he does not suffer in

body ; but it is that he does not suffer in mind. A

heavy log of wood is not easily lifted or shifted ; it

requires a number of hands to do so. If the same log is

immersed in water, it becomes light and even a child can

move it without effort. Similarly, if we learn to

immerse our load of suffering in the water of Jnana, it

will become extremely light and we can make light of

our suffering. <br>What is this Jnana that can

lighten our suffering? It is knowing a thing as it really

is. That is the quest of all scientists, namely, to

arrive at the core of the truth of things. And we know

that a scientist, engrossed in his research, loses

himself in his pursuit and is undisturbed by any

difficulty or distress. The pursuit of his research and the

joy resulting from the knowledge he thereby acquires,

far out weigh his personal suffering, which becomes

very nearly non-existent to him. <br><br>jaya jaya

shankara

[Guest guest]

why should i strive to attain something that I am

not comfortable with? Are you saying that jnana is

THE ONLY way we shall be able to endure any type of

suffering? arghhhhhhh So many ways, so many paths to the

mountaintop. I am a bhakti, are you saying that i will not be

able to endure suffering? I not only endure it, i

embrace it....as it is part and parcel of the divine. I

will continue to follow what is right for me if that

is ok in love, mirabai

[Guest guest]

Blessed Self, Mirabai<br><br>Jnana Yoga

challenges the other three main paths of Yoga by saying that

one cannot realize That which the other three paths

call God, Brahman, or Cosmic Consciousness by ritual,

actions, duty, selfless service, charity or stilling the

mind but only through renunciation of all worldly

attachments and identifications. Jnana Yoga claims that

knowledge of the Absolute is possible only through a

process of rigorous and continual logical inquiry to

distinguish the real from the unreal. This process of

negation, discarding the unreal, continues until only the

real is left. Here, logic can no longer be used to

fully know the Real and intuitive, direct experience

takes its place. <br><br>Of course, “discarding the

unreal” could be seen by the Bhakti or Karma Yogi as

seeing God everywhere all the time and offering your

self or your work respectively to God as manifested in

specific things or events. The Raja Yogi would view

“discarding the unreal” as eliminating irrelevent and

ungodlike thoughts form his or her consciousness.<br><br>So

these paths are essentially the same. They are

expressed differently for students of different temperments

and different strengths. While some of the techniques

and emphases of these paths differ, they all have the

same ultimate goal. That goal is to maintain a

consciousness that is concerned totally and exclusively with

the universal, divine force. Here, there is no regard

for how or through what vehicle that divine presence

manifests. <br><br>The goal, the process and the techniques

of these paths are not unique to them but rather are

shared by many of the world’s great religions. In Roman

Catholicism, for example, the Jesuits follow a Jnana Yoga path

but other orders follow Bhakti, Karma or Raja Yoga

paths.<br><br>Paths are many, Truth is One<br><br>Omprem

[Guest guest]

Thank you OmPrem for your explanation, it

certainly did help me to understand a bit better. Sometimes

it is very difficult to be a solitary practioner of

bhakti as I am with no one close to shed light on my

many questions. I thank you for taking the time to

explain. ) in love, mirabai

[Guest guest]

Hari Aum ! Just wanted to add my 2 cents

:-)<br><br>Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga may seem like different

paths in the beginning. But as you go deeper you'll

find that they merge. If you want to find the roots of

a tree, and let's say you start tracing from the

most peripheral part, which is the branch. Jnana yoga

and bhakthi yoga are like the 2 branches. As you go

deeper, you'll find that they merge into a single huge

trunk. As you go along this common trunk, you'll reach

the roots. <br><br>Similarly, jnana and bhakti

margas, merge as one goes higher, and join into a common

pathway through which the truth is realised. Let me

illustrate this with an eg. <br><br>Let's take the eg. of a

well known bhakta like Radha. She was always

contemplating on Krishna, more after he left for Mathura. When

she churned milk, she saw Krishna there. When she

went to the forest to get water, she saw Krishna

there. Whatever household chores she did, she saw

Krishna there. She didn't want anything that's not

Krishna. Isn't this the same as "Neti, Neti" in jnana

yoga?<br>In Bhakti yoga, you eliminate based on what's not

Krishna. In jnana yoga, you eliminate based on what's not

the Self. <br>In Bhakti yoga, you see Krishna

everywhere. In jnana yoga, you see the Self everywhere.

<br><br>Let's take an eg. of a jnani like Ramakrishna

Paramahamsa. Though he realised the Self and was always in

nirvikalpa samadhi, he said, " True bhakthi is when one

sheds tears on merely hearing the name of Krishna.

"<br>He cried everytime he heard the Divine name. Isn't

this bhakthi?<br><br>Is bhakthi different from Jnana.

They have to merge at some stage. Coming back to the

tree eg., it's 'cos we are starting from the branch

end, we feel they are 2 different paths, and are

merging. But if we change our perspective to the root end,

you'll see that the tree is dividing to reach out the

many to suit their temperaments. <br><br>Hari Aum !!!

[Guest guest]

There is a little more to bhakti then that

s_v_c_s. while jnana is introspection and contemplation of

Self and ego, the goal of a bhakti yogi is not to

merge with the Supreme Self but to be it's servant.

While samadhi is ultimately the goal of all spiritual

paths there are diffrent kinds of samadhi's or

spiritual blisses. Ultimately both paths recognize being

one with the Supreme Creator, jnana is more monism

where bhakti is tword dualism. So there are diffrent

spiritual awakenings along each seperate path or belief. It

is written "you are what you worship". But

ultimately I ahve to agree that the prime goal of all "True"

religions is liberation from maya, so to speak. But the

goals are diffrent in each religous practice.

[Guest guest]

Gyana Yoga is gives me the knowledge and

understanding required for the journey back "HOME", Raja Yoga

gives me the tools to make that journey, Karma Yoga is

the journey itself where the tools are applied, and

Bhakti is the glue, the attachment that keeps me

grounded, specially in times of trial. <br><br>While I

started off on the Gyana marga (path), today I find I

need them all, integrated.<br><br>_/\_ Tat twam

asi<br><br>Uma