KNOWLEDGE (GYAN)

By Col. (Retd.) Dr. Karam Singh

 When you know anything, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to hold that you do not know it—this is Knowledge.

— Confucius

I know that I know nothing.                                                                                                                                                                            — Socrates

 Not knowing that one knows is best.                                                                                                                                                            — Lao Tzu

Ordinarily, knowledge means the awareness gained by experience of an object or a fact or a situation. Knowledge also means information and skill gained through education or experience. Things of whole Existence may be divided into three categories, i.e. known, unknown and unknowable. Knowledge is the sum total of what is known. Things unknown today may be known in future, whereas things unknowable are beyond the knowing faculties of human beings such as when, why and how about Existence. Knowledge presupposes a knower (subject), the object of knowledge and the process of knowing. Epistemology is a branch of philosophy dealing with understanding the process of knowledge, i.e. the relationship between knowing mind and external reality of the universe. The act or process of knowing is called cognition. It includes every mental process that may be described as an experience of knowing, including perception, conception, recognition and reasoning as distinguished from an experience of feeling or willing. Perception means to become aware of objects such as stone, tree or human body, etc. through the five senses (sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing). Conception means having an idea or imagination of an object. Recognition means to know something by having come across it before or accept it as genuine, legal or valid. Reason means the power to think, understand and draw conclusion logically.

Since the beginning of history it is known that a human being is capable of having two kinds of knowledge, commonly called rational and intuitive. Rational knowledge is called scientific or philosophical and intuitive knowledge is called spiritual, mystical or religious. Generally speaking, intuitive knowledge has grown in Eastern countries (India, China, etc), whereas rational knowledge has grown in Western countries (European countries, U.S.A., etc). Mundika Upnishad also speaks of two kinds of knowledge i.e. 'Para' knowledge, which means supreme, absolute, primary or God-realisation and 'Apara' knowledge, which means secondary or relative such as sciences and arts. Scientific knowledge is considered as relative which can know conditional turth, such as objects and events in every day life. It is discriminative, divisive, comparative and analytical. It deals with a variety of shapes, structures and phenomena. It cannot take all features into account at a time. It selects a few significant ones and arrives at abstract concepts. It is linear and sequential and can be expressed clearly in alphabetical languages. It communicates experiences and thoughts in long lines of letters.

Spiritual knowledge deals with absolute unity or ultimate reality to get rid of confusion created by multiplicity. In such a type of knowledge, all things happening at the same time are known. Ultimate Reality cannot be the object of reasoning or demonstration. It cannot be adequately documented or described by words. Scientific knowledge gathers experience and evidence about phenomena to be explained. Reason is primary and intuition is secondary in scientific knowledge, whereas in spiritual knowledge, intuition is primary and reason is secondary. It is well known that scientific knowledge can be only approximate and restricted to certain selected groups of phenomena which can be explained by neglecting other phenomena that are less relevant. Everything cannot be understood at once. All scientific concepts or theories are limited and approximate. Louis Pasteur has stated that, “science advances through tenatative answers to a series of more and more subtle questions which reach deeper and deeper into the essence of natural phenomena.”

Spiritual or mystical experience goes beyond intellectual analysis and gains clarity of a different kind which is neither vague nor fuzzy as misunderstood by scientists. It is experiential: deep mystical experience which is always associated with clarity. It is the effect of lifting of the veil of ignorance which cuts through delusion, cleaning the mirror of mind, resulting in perception of the clear light of reality which is unexcelled complete awakening. Scientific knowledge is gained when consciousness turns outward to objects of the world, whereas spiritual knowledge is gained when consciousness turns inwards towards the knower. Spiritual knowledge is personal, direct, non-intellectual experience of the unity of all things, resulting in an attitude of co-operation and non-violence. Experience of such enlightenment cannot be expressed in words. The instant one speaks of the reality of a thing, as it is, one misses the mark. Spiritual knowledge is firmly based on personal mystical experience, rather than on theory or logic, i.e. direct insight gained by witnessing and introspecting and not by thinking or intellect. In spirituality, 'seeing' or witnessing refers to a mode of perception which may include visual perception but which always and essentially transcends it to become a non-sensory experience of reality. When the rational mind is silenced, the intuitive mode produces an extraordinary awareness. A Chinese mystic Chuang Tsu has written that “the still mind of the sage is a mirror of heaven and earth, the glass of all things.” Guru Nanak Dev Ji gained astronomical knowledge through intuitive mode, i.e. a reflection of the universe in his spotless mirror of mind, as stated in Guru Vani:

Lakh Akasan Akaas
Lakh Patalan Pataal.

(There are lakhs of skies above and lakhs of worlds below the earth.)

Even the knowledge at atomic or sub-atomic level of matter, is no longer derived from direct sensory experience. The delicate and complicated instruments of modern experimental physics make this world accessible only indirectly through a chain of processes, ending in some sound from an instrument or a dark spot on a photographic plate. The atomic and sub-atomic world itself lies beyond our sensory perception. Therefore, images and language of the sensory world are inadequate to describe such phenomena. An electron behaves as a particle as well as a wave at the same time. Ultimate reality is paradoxical and cannot be described in ordinary alphabetical language. Therefore, symbols have been used as an effort to convey knowledge of the ultimate Truth by mystics or spiritual masters and the same situation is being confronted by modern scientists. A very important question has been raised in the Upnishads about the knowledge of 'How to know the knower'. It is illusive and impossible in one sense! Ordinarily, no knowledge is possible without a separate subject and an object. But Ultimate Reality or Truth is the eternal subject. It is by virtue of its position as the knowing subject that all other knowledge becomes possible. But to know the knower is a peculiar predicament. The subject has to objectify itself in order to study it. But that is an impossible task. So how can the knower be known? But Truth is unique and its knowledge is also unique. Soul or Atma or Truth is the only entity that requires no other aid in order to apprehend or know itself. It is self-evident and self-aware. Everything in the universe may be argued away as a figment of imagination or as made-up of the same stuff as dreams are made of. But the self can never be so set aside. It is ever present. It is being. It is awareness. It imparts being to other things. It is ever known. But we do not recognise it so due to the veil of ignorance. Purpose of all religions and spiritual discipline is to remove this veil, i.e. to clean up the mental dust and dirt. This role is negative. It is only an indirect means to know the knower. Ignorance is an incomprehensible fact of ordinary experience. It has no being when truth is known. The veil of ignorance is the power of Brahman (God).  Asking the question why it is there, is a question also coming from ignorance. When it started, is not known. The light of knowledge destroys it. Then what are the means to attain knowledge of the Ultimate Knower? These are:

1)         Jigyasa (Intense yearning to know).
2)         Vivek (power of discrimination about things eternal vs non-eternel)
3)         Self-control or self-discipline to avoid non-eternal and dwell on the eternal.
4)         Grace of a true Spiritual Master.
            The knower is one (Advait) ultimate reality: Sat-Chit-Anand (Truth-knowledge-bliss).
            How to verify that one knows the one Knower?

            i)          Authority of revelation as ingrained in the scriptures.

            ii)         Evidence of competent living spiritual masters.

            iii)         In deep sleep, there is no duality. It is one self, without shackles of mind.

iv)        In the dream state, the mind constructs the dreams which are an extension of experiences and imagination of the awake state in a strange, distorted and fantastic permutation and combination in different dimensions of time, space and causation. Dreams of a person born blind/deaf are also blind/deaf.

v)         In the awake state, the mind constructs the so-called reality of the world in accordance with time, space and causation of the awake state dimension. Support for duality is available only during a third of the totality of our experience but the support for the non-dual is over-whelming; reason supports it; experience apprehends it and wise men vouch for it. Moreover, everyday use of the pronouns 'he' and 'thou' have plurals but 'I' has no plural. He + He is equal to 'They', 'Thou' + 'Thou' is equal to 'you' but 'I' + 'I' is not We. 'I' + 'He' or 'I' + 'Thou' is equal to 'We'. 'I' is always equal to 'I' and there is only one 'I'.

The path of knowledge is hard and difficult. Depending on different temperaments and competence, the ways to know the only One Knower are as under:-

1.         Mystical temperament, which by controlling the movements of mind, i.e. by stilling or silencing the inner chattering of mind, the eternal witness shines in its original nature.

2.         Emotional temperament: By surrendering to a chosen deity and getting absorbed in it (divinity), the devotee experiences the oneness of the Ultimate Reality.

3.         Energetic temperament: By working selflessly, the devotee escapes the clutches of karama (works) and experiences the state of Akarma (worklessness). These disciplines purify the mind resulting in the awareness of the Knower, standing revealed as ever known and all knower.

This state cannot be expressed. It can only be experienced. The Nirankari Mission embraces all these temperaments by bestowing Gyan (Divine Knowledge) of One Formless (Nirankar), the Ultimate Reality. By the grace of the Satguru and a process of knowledge by accepting its five tenets by the seeker, explanation of the nine elements of the creation and the tenth the (Creator) by bestower of Gyan functions as an instantaneous jump from the sensory (rational) knowledge to the non-sensory (intuitive) mode of knowledge. By doing Simran (remembrance of Formless Nirankar), singing praises of Nirankar (Formless), surrendering to Satguru and rendering selfless service (Sewa) of human race, the knowledge of one Ultimate Reality in likely to stabilise one's life and result in escaping the cycle of birth and death, i.e. to attain salvation (Mukti) from the bondage of multiplicity of Existence.

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