The knowledge of the higher Self is spiritual Wisdom (jnanam) and Krishna in these closing four verses extolls its glories. The entire chapter was a call to men to comprehend this Truth and to end th6 limited ego-centric life of ignorance and imperfections. How the little ego gets flooded out and annihilated by wisdom is the main theme of this chapter and hence the chapter is entitled "Renunciation of Action in Knowledge" (Jnaanakarmasamnyaasa-yoga).
In order to realise the Self in us, in an immediate personal experience, certain adjustments are to be made in our personality which are all processes of removing the agitations of our mind. Mind fluttering with its lusts and passions, worries and regrets, fancies and imagination cannot focus itself in the direction of Self, and in its disturbed perception only a very, very dim and highly distorted experience can be had. Here Krishna lays down healthy conditions under which a clear and vivid experience of the Self can be ours
Insists Krishna, (IV-39-) "He who has Sraddha, is devoted; and is a master of his senses, attains this knowledge. Having attained knowledge, ere long, one reaches the Supreme Peace".
The man who has Sraddha gains spiritual experience" (sraddha-vaan labhate jnaanam), is a famous statement in-the Hindu scrip¬tures, oft repeated and always translated as "a man of faith gains true wisdom". Here the word faith is no doubt the best corres¬ponding word in English, but it brings along with it an atmosphere of tradition ---to mean a blind, unintelligent, unquestionable faith. In Vedanta freedom of the intellect of the student is fully recognised and zealously guarded both by the teachers and the students "Faith is a belief in what I do not know now, so that I may soon enough come to know what I believe in." The dar¬ing heroism of a fully convinced intellect, to take the plunge into the unknown, to live in quest therein, till in a subjective expe¬rience the theoretical knowledge acquired already is confirmed in glowing wisdom.
A mere intellectual daring and a restless heroism are not suf¬ficient in themselves. The student must be devoted (tatparah) to the pursuit of the Supreme. Faith and devotion can provide the seeker with maximum inner alertness to meditate, but very often' we find him fail in his final climbs, because his inner attention gets shattered when he has not cultivated in himself sufficient control over his sense-organs (samyatendriyah). The sense-organs are by their very nature extrovert, and their functions are to fan out our attention into the field of perceptions. Therefore, no amount of faith in the ideal and devotion to it can supply us the required meditative poise unless the sense-organs are brought under control.
When these three are cultivated, intellectual faith, mental devotion and physical control of the senses, all our personality layers get involved in the integrated meditation In such a total attention, with a devoted mind and intellect soaked in under¬standing the seeker comes to live the higher experiences of the world of Reality. At first these exhilarating excursions into the Self may come in short blindening flashes. Soon, ere long, he goes to the Supreme Peace (jnaanam labdhwaa paraam saantim acire-naadhigacchati)
Conversely, if there be one "who has not cultivated any faith (asraddadhaanasca), and, is therefore, "full of doubts" (samsayaat-maa), "he perishes". "To the doubting Thomas there is neither this world, nor the next - - - and never happiness", (naayamlokosti na paro nasukham samsayaatmanah). To animals there can be no doubts: Only intelligent men can have doubts. Doubts come where clear and convincing understanding has not risen. This is something from which no one can help another out. Teachers, scriptures, commentaries, discourses, studies ... are all the means not the end : the fulfillment of all these is the growing conviction gathering all by itself in the heart of the reflective student. A mere active participation in studies, however sincere, in not sufficient by itself. What has been comprehended by inte¬llectual study must be apprehended by the heart - - - and this is achieved only when the seeker gets involved in the study and independently learns to quietly reflect upon what he has gathered in his studies. To the extent the seeker commits himself to what he has gathered during his studies and reflections, to that extent alone his faith glows to spread its beatific light within. Then all doubts cease.
The majority of us undertake study for a vainful satisfaction of our superficial curiosity. We are not prepared to re-orgainse our life - - - to re-orientate our views - - - in the light of the fresh knowledge so gathered. We have no irrepressible hunger to conquer new dimensions - - - we are easily satisfied with our present state of existence : limited, conditioned, crushed, tossed about. Therefore knowledge does not bring the clear light of a dawn into our bosom - - - its fading light is the dying glow of dusk- - - and darkness gathers in every corner ---as time pas-.es there is more and more darkness.
Ours must be a valid knowledge - - - capable of guiding us, ready to support us, vigorous enough to nurture and nourish us all along life's uneven path : through all its dreary depths and sunny peaks. If it is not so then the ineffectual, undigested, impo¬tent knowledge is but a heavy load of gold that donkeys carry : it weighs down the beast of burden - - - but it is of no use to it.
The doubting Thomas is a sad phenomenon in life. Such an individual ever doubting every thing is not an intellectual - - - if at all anything, - - - he is just the opposite. Much better it is to be sure that there is no greater life - - - that the scriptures are false - - - that there is no higher life to aspire for. Such were the mighty aethists - - - the Rakshasas ...... the wicked ones who lived life dangerously courageous, criminally winning all their sense-gratifications, supremely secular,; vulgarly licentious, shame¬lessly corrupt, thoughtlessly immoral and, yet withal, lived cons¬tantly in dreadful dreams of their own dishonourable failure in the end.
To such an ever- doubting personality there is no success in this world, no achievement in the next - - - and never happi¬ness anywhere, at any time. Hence Krishna argues, (IV-40) "The ignorant man without Sraddha, the doubting-man, goes to his own destruction. Such a doubter has neither this world, nor the next - - - and never happiness anywhere, at any time."
This is a sad negative mentality we often see in many people. They constantly doubt. They doubt everyone around them - - -their motives, actions, intentions, purposes. They doubt their friends, relations, superiors, dependents. They doubt all religions, every philosophy, every word of everyone, irrespective of who they are. Their doubts are the irrational, irresponsible, irrepressible confusions of their own ignorance.
In fact such persons doubt even themselves and their own abilities. When an individual has thus no faith either in himself or in the world around him, he can have neither any achievement in this world - - - nor any glories in the next : why, he cannot have any happiness, anywhere, at any time, since he keeps doubting.
Therefore, Krishna roars his conviction "a man with faith attains to this spiritual wisdom" ( sraddhaavaan labhate jnaanam ).
Topic: THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION By : Swami Chinmayananda Means of Wisdom (Read 2446 times)