The other side of Ignorance - Jnaneshvar

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" Jnaneshvar: The Life and Works of the Celebrated Thirteenth Century

Indian

Mystic-Poet, " by S. Abhyayananda.

advaitatexts

 

Chapter Four: Knowledge and Ignorance

 

From Abhayananda's (the translator and author) Introduction to Chapter

Four:

 

" Chapter Four is a continuation on the same theme (as Chapter 3). The

understanding of the nature of reality which arises through discursive

thought dispels ignorance, says Jnaneshvar, but that knowledge is,

itself, an illusory knowledge compared to the Knowledge which is

synonymous with the absolute Self. The knowledge consisting of logical

reasonings and proofs may produce intellectual understanding, but that

is merely the other side of the coin of ignorance; such word-knowledge

can never produce Knowledge; i.e., the revelation of the Self. "

 

Chapter Four (excerpts):

 

By looking in a mirror, one perceives his own identity;

But that identity was already there.

 

In the same way, relative knowledge gives the understanding

Of the identity of the world and the Self --

But it is like using a knife

To cut another knife.

 

Fire, in the process of annihilating camphor,

Annihilates itself as well;

This is exactly what happens to knowledge

In the process of destroying ignorance.

 

The cresting of a wave is but its fall;

The flash of a bolt of lightning

Is but its fading.

 

Likewise, knowledge,

Drinking up the water of ignorance,

Grows so large

That it completely annihilates itself.

 

This absolute Knowledge is like

The intrinsic fullness of the moon,

Which is unaffected

By its apparent waxing and waning.

 

Likewise, that which is Consciousness Itself

Does not possess the quality of being conscious,

And is, therefore, not conscious of Itself.

 

If absolute Knowledge required the aid

Of some other kind of knowledge to know Itself,

It would be nothing but ignorance.

 

Of course, light is not darkness;

But, to itself, is it even light?

 

If there is a pot, a pot is perceived,

And if the pot is broken, its brokenness is perceived;

If there is no pot at all,

Is not its absence perceived as well?

 

It can be seen, therefore,

That he who perceives that there is nothing

Does not himself become nothing.

The Self has this same unique kind of existence,

Beyond both existence and non-existence.

 

The ultimate Reality

Is neither an object to Itself

Nor is It an object to anyone else.

Should it then be regarded as non-existent?

 

In a tank the water may be so clear

That it appears non-existent;

Though one who looks into the tank may not see it,

Still it is there.

 

Similarly,

The ultimate Reality exists in Itself,

And is beyond the conceptions

Of existence or non-existence.

 

When a jar is placed on the ground,

We have the ground with a jar;

When the jar is taken away,

We have the ground without a jar;

 

But when neither of these conditions exists,

The ground exists in its unqualified state.

It is in this same way

That the ultimate Reality exists.