Atma Bodha - Post 51

Verse 41

ज्ञातृज्ञानज्ञेयभेदः परे नात्मनि विद्यते ।

चिदानन्दैकरूपत्वाद्दीप्यते स्वयमेव तत् ॥ ४१॥

JNAATRU-JNAANA-JNEYA BHEDAH

PARE NA AATMANI VIDYATE

CHIDAANANDA EKA ROOPATVAAT

DEEPYATE SWAYAM EVA TAT

[Distinctions like knower, knowledge and known do not exist in the Supreme Self.  Since its nature is homogenous consciousness and bliss, It verily shines by Itself.]

The knowledge referred to here is the intellectual knowledge. Our intellect is capable of perceiving objects other than itself. Hence all our knowledge is constituted by the knowledge of things other than ourselves. But for the Brahman which is verily knowledge as the Taittriya Upanishad says “Satyam Jnanam Anantham Brahma”, there is no duality of knower nor the object to know or the knowledge.

Also for any action or specifically for knowledge, there should be an ignorant subject, a means of getting knowledge and the object of knowledge and knowledge itself. Thus for the Self which is verily knowledge and self luminous, there can be no action of knowledge. Being non-dual and eternal, it cannot have any distinction such as the subject and the object. Like the sun that shines by itself and needs no other torch to illumine it, Atman is self luminous.

As we have learnt in the previous slokas, when the ignorance of the nature of Self has been destroyed by knowledge of Brahman, there is nothing but Self. To such a knower of Brahman for whom everything such as names and forms are merged in Self and has become Self, how can there be the difference of knower, known and knowledge?

Just as how a fire does not burn itself, similarly the Self cannot know itself. When the knower of Brahman who has discriminated the real from the unreal, there exists only the subject, one without second.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, second chapter speaks in detail about this as:

“When the object of understanding is not there, what is there to understand? When there is no more of such an object then how can there be knowing of anything? And because that object of knowledge has become knowledge itself, so there is no such thing as knowing ‘anything’. Where everything is Self of knowledge, there can be nothing that the Self can know except its own Self and through what instrument should one know the knower? Everything hence is known by the knower of Brahman.”

Dear Readers,

Are we getting a feeling that what is explained above is very abstract, as we are not able to relate to the above explanation about SELF as Self Illuminous or That which is Knowledge itself??

Let us take the knowledge which we speak of, which we can relate to in this world. It could be any knowledge, knowledge of science, knowledge of arts, knowledge of Business, knowledge about religion etc. All these knowledge is received / pursued and attained by our intellect.

But how does this intellect get the awareness, the illumination by which it is able to pursue and get knowledge of everything in this creation??

Science may explain it by the presence of neurons etc in the Brain. But they can only help the intellect (brain) to know about objects. How about the one to one experience which a human being gets??? The subjective experience, the inner most feelings, the experience when he visits a place of worship and gets immersed there??

This source that gives the power / illumination to the intellect first and then, through intellect to the body, mind, senses, is dealt with in the Srutis or the Upanishads and its related treatise and commentaries.

And, a sincere spiritual seeker, endowed with the knowledge as given in the Srutis, when he absorbs them and sits in deep meditation, then, if he is fortunate, if his craving to experience SELF is sincere and above all, if God showers His grace on him, then he gets glimpse of the TRUTH given in Srutis as a subjective experience within.

This subjective experience is the KNOWLEDGE itself.

When he gets such a subjective experience, then at that moment, he, the knower, the known or the knowledge which is known by him externally, the knowing or the process which he is able to relate externally are all gone and only that TRUTH, which is his subjective experience, remains.

Let us take an example.

We are seated in Sai centre or in SK Hall. We are singing a bhajan. Here, we are the knower or more precisely, the experiencer of our singing, the process of singing is the Knowing or the experiencing process and Sai / God is the known or the object of experience.

But when we are deeply immersed in our singing / any other’s singing, a moment might come when we forget that we are singing, we forget the place, the process, the percussion’s sound, the environment etc, we also forget or transcend the thought of God with form.

However, upon transcending all these things, there is an experience beyond our intellect, our mind, deep inside, where there are no thoughts at all. Call it Bliss or Pure Awareness or Jnana or Sathyam or Pure existence!!!

This experience is what is given in this verse.

Hope, with this bhajan example, at least we are easily able to relate to what this verse says!!!

Love.