(Sep 21,2013) Weekly Svadhyaya - Wisdom and Knowledge by Swami Chidananda

Svadhyaya for September 21, 2013 Wisdom and Knowledge

Beloved immortal Atman! Blessed children of the Divine! Most fortunate spiritual seekers! You are seeking the Reality hidden behind and beyond passing appearances; you are seeking the Reality, which is permanent and eternal. Within you is that same Reality dwelling as the eternal, imperishable principle. The pindanda is the same as the Brahmanda; the microcosm is a replica of the macrocosm, the great Universe. Similarly your own little being is a replica of the Universal Being. It holds within itself the eternal and permanent.

Wisdom means to discriminate, analyze and distinguish the two-fold coexistence of the nitya and anitya eternal and non-eternal, the shashvat and ashashvat (permanent and passing), the Purna and Apurna (perfect and non-perfect). Make your life a process of converting this intellectual knowledge and conviction into an actual experience, so that you become a Self-realized person, you have Atma-jnana, so that you do not merely know and understand, but you experience and you yourself become that Reality – that is wisdom.

Knowledge means to bring about this shift of consciousness from identification with temporary, back into its primal, pristine state of Self-abidance, Self-knowledge. This knowledge is a process of Realization. This knowledge is the quintessence of the Upanishads and Vedanta. It can be summed up in a very brief way:

1. The knowledge that the appearances are unreal, and that the eternal background and the source, support and the supreme goal of all existence is that Reality.

2. The knowledge of the divinity of man, your own divinity.

If you give too much value to the outer universe and make it your goal and run after it, then you are in a state of ajnana (ignorance); no matter how much you might have studied the scriptures. You are not a true Vedantin. Among the ephemeral unrealities that Vedanta wants you to discard is the ephemeral unreality of your own ego-consciousness also. If you think that you are something, which has a reality, then you are in a state of ajnana. If you give credence, credibility, validity or some status of reality to the ego-consciousness – to “I”, “I am something” “I want this” – then you are in a state of ajnana. But to be aware that it is something to be given up and not to be fought for, then that is the beginning of true wisdom, beginning of Vedanta. Let this be deeply reflected upon you.

God Bless You! Swami Chidananda

Additional Reading:

Self-knowledge By Swami Sivananda    The Wisdom of Life By Swami Krishnananda    The Taittiriya Upanishad By Swami Krishnananda  The Wisdom of Cosmic Existence By Swami Krishnananda    Understanding the situation of Life By Swami Krishnananda