A Philosophic Outlook of Life
Divine Life
Society Publication: Chapter 3 What is
Knowledge by Swami Krishnananda
“Yoga is union with the ultimate state of
things, not with things as they appear.”
The ordinary way of thinking
Our thinking is almost
entirely conditioned by sense perception. We think as we see, as we hear, and
as we sense in any form whatsoever. Our mind is a kind of confirming authority
over whatever information is given through the senses. The peculiar central
operation inside, which not only receives all these reports of the senses at
the same time, but harmonizes them into a single cognition – that internal
operation is the mind. Our thinking is also mostly sensory.
The philosophic mind is more
than the ordinary empirical synthesizing mind. This is why it is sometimes said
that there is a lower mind and a higher mind. The lower mind does this work of
gathering information and simply synthesizing it into a central act of what is
called perception and cognition. We seem to be doing very little independently;
we are only reacting to what is happening outside insistently, perpetually.
This is the ordinary man’s life.
Not that we are incapable of
thinking in any other manner, but we will not be permitted to think because of
the continuous pressure exerted upon the mind by events and circumstances of
the outer world, of nature, and of society.
If we are forced to do something, do we call it a free act?
We may be running for two
reasons. We may be a participant in a race and want to win a prize. We may
regard it as an act of freedom. So, in this running, we are exercising our own
free choice. But suppose we are running because we are chased from all sides by
wild animals; do we call it a free act, though we are running in the same way
as we ran in a race? Therefore, the action may be the same outwardly – in both
cases it is running – but they are two different things altogether. In one
case, we exercise a freedom. In another case, we are forced to run due to
reasons beyond our control.
Now, our life normally, cannot
be considered really as an act of freedom. We have to eat because we are hungry.
But why should there be hunger? A philosophic mind will never be satisfied
unless the ultimate reason for a thing is known. The ultimate cause alone can
explain the lesser causes and effects of every type. These are the difficulties
of a philosophic mind. It cannot be easily satisfied with mere perceptions of
things. “Does the world exist as it is?” “Is it its own creator?” “Or does it
have no creator?” We cannot easily get an answer to these questions.
A truly philosophic mind
cannot rest in peace until it gets an ultimate irrefutable answer – not to one
or two questions only, but to every question pertaining to every type of
existence.
Curiosity to know things
Do you believe that it is
necessary to know the reason behind things? Or will you be satisfied by merely
reacting to phenomena or events that occur outside? There is a curiosity born
of a dissatisfaction as well as a perception of wonder. "How do things
arrange themselves in this world in the manner they occur and present
themselves?" This rouses in our minds a sense of wonder.
Have we made ourselves
ignorant deliberately, or has someone else thrown us into this condition? An
entry into this abyss of human difficulty is attempted by a philosophic mind.
Ancient thinkers, both in the East and the West, were very actively engaged in
this adventure of knowledge. They were not satisfied with anything else. How
can we say that anything else is important in this world, if these things are
not to be known? If certain important serious matters are hidden out of our
vision, how can we say that life is a satisfying field of existence even for a
few moments? We realize, now, why knowledge is so important.
Pursuit of Knowledge
Philosophy does not mean
reading some books or thinking something erratically. It is an attempt to have
the true wisdom of life, and to know how to live in a world of this kind.
The ancient thinkers busied
themselves with this great adventure – the pursuit of true knowledge which is the
art of wise living. Knowledge is life itself, and is as important as life
itself.
The process of the
investigation of factors and conditions which contribute to the rise of this
knowledge is philosophy. In India we call it darsana, the
vision of Reality, and the practical methods that we employ to establish
ourselves in this vision of Reality is called yoga.
Yoga is living knowledge
To apply knowledge to our
practical existence in this world is yoga. Yoga is union with the ultimate
state of things, not with things as they appear. Life does not anymore appear
like a puppet show whose strings are operated by somebody else, someone who
cannot be seen. We know the secret of the drama of existence, and we cannot any
more be kept in a state of ignorance of values – because ignorance is, in a
way, our incapacity to recognize any vital relationship that we have with the
ultimate state of things.
Unless we know the cause, we
cannot know why things are happening as they are, because an effect has a cause.
Cause and effect
This particular phenomenon we
call life in this world, as it is seen now, is an operation by some cause which
is not visible to the eyes. There is a chain of railway carriages, and we know
very well that although it appears that the carriage in front is pulling that
one behind it, they are all pulled by an engine which itself is not pulled by
anything else. Hence, everything is moved by something else, but there must be
something which itself is not moved, but moves all things. Only then will we
know why the railway train is moving. Otherwise, we know only relative
movements – one pushing the other – without knowing why this pushing should be
there at all.
Thus, the reason behind all
occurrences, events in life, seems to be an important matter for study and
understanding; and this reason is not merely the logical reason. The final
answer to all these relative motions, occurrences, activities and phenomena in
life can be explained only by a final reference. If this is known, we know how
things are, and why things are, and we will not put any more questions. We
become spectators of the events of the universe; and we do not merely remain as
spectators of something happening outside us – we realize that we ourselves are
participators in this great activity of the universe.
A holistic vision of things
The events of the world are
not taking place only outside us, as if we are unconnected. There is an
interconnection of causative factors. This is so because the world is one single
entity; it is not made up of unconnected parts. It is a living body, something
like our own body. Any event in any part of our body is an event occurring in
the whole body.
We want to know what is the
matter with all things. This is why we are searching for something. The problem
is the intricate, inexplicable relationship of the individual with the Total
Whole. Therefore, we can get truth everywhere. We can touch a person by
touching any part of the body of that person – any part is that person only.
Similarly, since the whole world is one single organic entity, we can be
anywhere; it is as if we are everywhere.
This is a new vision which
would be worthwhile for us to entertain, because we would realize that even the
possibility of entertaining such a wholesome, holistic vision of things brings
us a new kind of satisfaction – a satisfaction that arises from the very fact
of it being possible for us to have a total vision of things. It is not a
satisfaction that comes merely by eating, drinking and sleeping. It comes
merely by 'knowing' that this is so. Knowledge itself is satisfaction.
Excerpts from:
A Philosophic Outlook of Life – What is
Knowledge by Swami Krishnananda
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