An Analysis of the Brahma Sutra - 6.4.- Swami Krishnananda.

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 Saturday,  20  May  2023. 05:30.. 

Chapter 6: The Controversy Over Action and Knowledge-4.

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Mere intellectual, paroksha jnana, conceptual knowledge is not Real Knowledge. There are professors who are 'embodiments' of knowledge. Well, it is beautifully said that they are professors only, not possessors. You can profess but not possess. So, this professional knowledge is of no use. We must be possessors of knowledge. That kind of knowledge, theoretical, is condemned in the Isavasya Upanishad as useless – it will lead to further bondage because it instils egoism into one's nature (Isavasya Upanishad 9). Learned people – panditas – professors can be boasting of their knowledge while that knowledge is outside their personal being and does not touch them at all. Professorial knowledge or intellectual comprehension of the subjects of philosophy and science and religion etc. – all these are something like a beautiful shirt that you put on making you look beautiful, but you know you are not the shirt; you are something else inside. Panditas are mostly miserable in their personal lives; they complain more than you complain!

The Brahma Sutra has many things to tell us on the relationship between action and knowledge. Purva Mimamsa is set aside as an inadequate process of spiritual liberation as it has set aside Charvaka, Bauddha, Pasupata, Sankhya, and even the personalistic conception of God. The prescription of Brahma Sutra is very severe, severe in the sense that your notions of God do not always coincide with God-Being.

Action and Knowledge are the two great paths, but the Bhagavad Gita mentions that they are not two paths – they are one and the same. Properly understood Action, Universal Action, is the same as Contemplation or Meditation.

People generally speak of 'Contemplation in Action' and 'Action in Contemplation'. We are body-bound individuals; we cannot see 'Contemplation in Action'. Contemplation is Action in a universal sense and Action is Contemplation also in a universal sense. The Path of the Spirit is Universal Inclusiveness.

I mentioned to you that the path of the gods leading to Brahma Loka is marked with various stages of ascent through the divinities of every element in the universe – earth, water, fire, air, ether; space, time, causation – you have to traverse higher and higher. Earth is a divinity; water is a divinity; fire is divinity; Wind-air-vayu is a divinity; Space is divinity; Time is divinity; Causation is divinity; the impulse to create and be individual is a divinity – all these have to be traversed. These are the passages through krama mukti, 'Gradational Salvation', taking a long time.


But there is another way, the Path of Immediate Salvation. It is a terrifying thing even to think what it could be. You attain salvation at once, not struggling through various stages like the crawling of an ant. There are two paths known as 'Ant's Path' and the 'Bird's Path', pipilika marga and suka marga as they call it; pipilika is the ant, suka is the bird. If the ant is to reach a particular destination, it has to crawl little by little with its tiny legs – it will reach of course but it will take a lot of time; but the bird will fly straight to that destination without any obstacle. The 'Ant's path' is Yoga; the 'Bird's path' is Immediate Identity with Brahman.

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To be continued

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