The goal of mankind is knowledge. That is the one ideal placed before us by Eastern philosophy. Pleasure is not the goal of man, but knowledge’, says Swami Vivekananda.1 What is knowledge? Ordinarily, knowledge is associated with retaining a lot of information in our memory and having the ability to retrieve it at the right time. A person is called knowledgeable if he or she can reproduce precisely from his or her memory the relevant information that is valued by and useful to the people around. If knowledge was just a function of memory, or intellect, then the loss of memory or outer consciousness (intelligence) would be the end of knowledge for that person. It may be so in the sense of everyday life. But, then, what is knowledge in the real sense of the term? Let us try to reflect over the concept of knowledge.
First of all, let us see what Swami Vivekananda has to say about the process of our knowing the objects of this world. He says, ‘There is first the external vibration, the word. This, carried inward by the sense currents, is the meaning. After that there comes a reactionary wave in the Chitta [mind-stuff], which is knowledge.’2
The Process of Unfolding Knowledge
Knowledge existed even before the creation came into existence. For, without first knowing what to create, nothing can be created. But then, you cannot know how to create something unless it was created earlier as well. For example, a sculptor creates a statue with the help of the previous knowledge of the form he had seen at some point of time. That means creation and the knowledge behind it are both eternal. They are ever existing, only becoming dormant or hibernated at times, so to say, and at other times becoming active or manifested. The factor that governs these cycles can be called as the veil of Maya or ignorance. We may recall how Swamiji gave the example of the veil or curtain, having a small hole, between himself and the audience he was addressing. As the size of the hole increases, more of the audience stand revealed to him. This way we understand the process of creation and dissolution better. Again, Swamiji says:
Now this knowledge, again, is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside. What we say a man ‘knows’, should, in strict psychological language, be what he ‘discovers’ or ‘unveils’; what a man ‘learns’ is really what he ‘discovers’, by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.3
Then the question arises: Why is this knowledge which is our inherent nature, not available to us right now? In reply we can only point out that by going deeper within, using subtler pure intelligence, one can uncover this knowledge layer by layer. Unless one is evolved to assimilate and regulate the knowledge properly, it cannot be directly used in the present state of his or her being.
Knowledge is like an ice cap on the top of the Himalayan mountains. It is there but not reachable or usable. Only when that ice comes down in the form of the glacial rivers, can we have access to it and use it for our purpose. Similarly, the tapas through self-control and seeking in our life heats up the ice of knowledge and melts it for us into awareness. The inherent knowledge becomes graspable only after it comes under the spectrum of awareness. We can correlate this with the four types of vanis (sounds)—para (undifferentiated vibration at the source within), pashyanti (first manifestation in the mind), madhyama (internal sound in the senses), vaikhari (external audible sound from vocal organs).
If the water in a reservoir is let out all of a sudden, it will only inundate the area with a flood rather than quenching the thirst of people. The water can be used for drinking and other purposes only if it is drawn in a controlled way through the water outlets connected with the reservoir. Similarly, the knowledge and perfection that is within reveals itself in proportion to the spiritual evolution of the person. Swamiji explains it this way:
All knowledge, therefore, secular or spiritual, is in the human mind. In many cases it is not discovered, but remains covered, and when the covering is being slowly taken off, we say, ‘We are learning,’ and the advance of knowledge is made by the advance of this process of uncovering. The man from whom this veil is being lifted is the more knowing man, the man upon whom it lies thick is ignorant, and the man from whom it has entirely gone is all-knowing, omniscient.4
Knowledge is metaphorically associated with light and vice versa. Somehow we all abhor darkness and instinctively tend to seek light. Even insects gather around a light bulb or a candle; what to speak of human attraction for light! The truth is seen clearly in the light of the sun of knowledge. The most celebrated Gayatri Mantra is recited as a prayer to illumine our dormant intellect with the effulgence of the Supreme Consciousness.
Knowing vis-à-vis Realizing
When it comes to the Ultimate Truth, even this light is a covering that requires to be removed. This is how the Isha Upanishad prays:हिरण्मयेनपात्रेणसत्यस्यापिहितंमुखम्,तत्त्वंपुष्पनपावृणुसत्यधर्मायदृष्टये—‘The face of Truth is concealed by a golden vessel. Do thou, O Sun, open it so as to be seen by me who am by nature truthful (and) performer of rightful duties.’
Knowledge is wanted until we are ignorant. The moment ignorance is removed by knowledge, the relevance of knowledge also is gone—then ‘it is being and becoming, it is realization’. Such a state is described in the Upanishad as:यस्यामतंतस्यमतंमतंयस्यनवेदसः,अविज्ञातंविजानतांविज्ञातमविजानताम्—He by whom Brahman is not known [as an object in the mind], knows It [realizes It as one’s own Self]; he by whom It is known [as an object in the mind], knows It not. [Hence,] It is not known by those who know It [as an objective knowledge]; It is known by those who do not know It [but realizes it as Self-Consciousness, the substratum of all knowledge].5
The ‘I’ is almost impersonal without the bracket of the mind. The knowing was happening spontaneously and implicitly till it was required to be articulated in the outside world as ‘I know’ or ‘I am knowing’. It is, as if, the subject-object-less knowledge gradually got linked with the ‘I’ and the mind to create this apparent process of knowing. That is why the eternal Vedic knowledge is termed ‘apaurusheya’, without a personal creator. This ‘I’, the subject, is like an empty space which gets identification only through some object with name and form. Just like mere empty space cannot become the object of our understanding, unless we see it in comparison with other celestial objects floating in it, this ‘I’, also cannot be grasped without associating it with the modifications or vagaries of the mind. Thus, what we call knowledge is the baby born of the combination of impersonal and personal.
Two Kinds of Knowledge
Knowledge manifests in two ways—one comes from the outside world, through our senses and the mind, and the other reveals from inside, our soul, through the spiritual truths. The Vedanta calls these as apara—secular and para—spiritual vidyas. ‘द्वेविद्येवेदितव्ये … पराचैवापराच’—two kinds of knowledge must be known … the higher knowledge and the lower knowledge. Of these two, the lower knowledge is the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Atharva-Veda, shiksha (phonetics), kalpa (rituals), vyakarana (grammar), nirukta (etymology), chhandas (metre), and jyotish (astronomy); and the higher knowledge is that by which the imperishable Brahman is attained.6
We are what our knowledge is. Our awareness is centred around our knowledge of ourselves and the world. This knowledge is not the bookish information or the academic knowledge that we gather during our school or university education. Here we are dealing with the knowledge that sprouts from the locus of our consciousness. Our thoughts and actions all emerge from this centre, and having wrong knowledge—in terms of the knowledge of the truth—causes wrong thoughts and wrong actions.
We get something after we have given up something. The process of knowing is related with renouncing what we have and entering into the realm of the unknown. For higher experience, we have to practise renunciation. Far from experiencing the Truth, an ordinary person cannot even experience something tangible (sensory) properly. Therefore, religion, which is realization, comes only from renunciation of the attachments to the worldly objects.
Unveiling True Knowledge
This spiritual knowledge helps us live our day to day lives connected with the eternal Reality. We acquire strength of control over nature, both internal and external. For example, fear of death transforms into a sense of sublime fearlessness.
In a different way, the manifestation of inherent knowledge that is covered by ignorance can be done by propitiating the Power that is the source of this knowledge. For example, in some age-old traditions, the path to reach this knowledge was said to be concealed and protected by various means from those who are unprepared to receive it. In a way, it was vouchsafed with the deities, for instance, Sri Ganesh, Sri Saraswati, and so on, who guard the treasure of knowledge from being diluted or polluted by those who have not performed sufficient tapas, penance. A seeker has to propitiate these deities, who are manifestations of absolute Brahman, before receiving this knowledge to unveil the dormant Reality within and become the true ‘Knower’.
References
- The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 1.27.
- Complete Works, 1.229–230.
- Ibid., 1:28–29.
- Ibid.
- Kena Upanishad, 2.3.
- 6. Mundaka Upanishad, 1.1.4–5.