Annamalai Swami: - jnani

[Guest guest]

Question: Going back to the question of how to determine who is and who is not a jnani, can we not come to some valid conclusion by studying his life and his teachings? Will not his state be somehow reflected in the life he leads?

 

Annamalai Swami: You cannot determine the answer to this question by studying the teachings or the behaviour of a person you think might be a jnani. These are not reliable indicators. Some jnanis may stay silent; others may talk a lot. Some are active in the world; some withdraw from it. Some end up as teachers while others are content to stay hidden. Some behave like saints, whereas others act like madmen. The same peace can be found in the presence of all these beings, since this peace is not affected by modes of behaviour, but there may be no other common factors.

Question: Jnanis are supposed to have an equality of vision. Can we not decide whether someone may be a jnani on the basis of whether he treats people around him equally?

 

Annamalai Swami: Jnanis remain absorbed in the Self at all times and their apparent behaviour is just a reflection of the circumstances they find themselves in. Some may appear to be egalitarian. Others may not. They play their allotted roles, and though they may seem to be involved in them as ordinary people would be, they are not really touched by any of the events that occur in their lives. Equal vision may be there, internal equanimity may be there, but don’t expect all jnanis to behave in a prescribed, egalitarian way.

Bhagavan often used to cite King Janaka as an example of a jnani who was fully involved in the affairs of the world. But when his palace caught fire and was burning to the ground, he was the only person in the vicinity who was not disturbed.

In this same story there was a group of sadhus who lived near the palace. When the fire began to spread, they panicked and began to collect their sticks, their spare kaupinas, their water pots, and so on. They had very few possessions, but they were still very attached to them, and they definitely didn’t want to lose them to the fire. They were more worried about their spare underwear than Janaka was about his palace. Janaka watched his palace burn to the ground with complete equanimity. When you have this jnana, your inner peace is a solid rock that cannot be disturbed.

 

ANNAMALAI SWAMI, FINAL TALKS

edited by DAVID GODMAN