Stages of Knowledge
Divine Life
Society Publication: Chapter 11 The Philosophy of
Religion by Sri Swami Krishnananda
It is said in the
Yoga-Vasishtha that in the earliest stage of knowledge there is an inward
inclination for search after truth. Self-consciousness, as it is available in
the human level, is not supposed to be manifest in the lower kingdoms, the
animal, the plant and the mineral. It is only at the human stage that
discrimination is supposed to dawn, because self-consciousness is at the same
time a capacity to discriminate and distinguish between what is proper and what
is improper, and what is real and what is unreal. But it does not mean that
every human being is in search of truth. While all can be regarded as men, some
are, in fact, animal-men. They think like animals with an intensity of
selfishness gone to the extreme, with a desire to grab and destroy and consume
and with no consideration for others absolutely. This is the lowest state in
which man can be evaluated. But there are superior individuals who have risen
above the animal level, yet are intensely selfish nevertheless, who may be good
to anyone only if the other is good to them, but bad if the other is bad to
them. But man has to rise to the still higher level where he metes out only
good to the other and cognises not the bad element. The good man is one who
does good always, under every condition, and is not conditionally good. Beyond
the good man is the saintly man, and still above, the Godman, whatever be our
description of such a state of illumination.
It is only in the later stages
of evolution that the spirit of search rises and fructifies in experience,
firstly as a wish to be good. This is regarded as the first stage in knowledge.
When man is not satisfied with the things of the world, when he begins to feel
that there is something missing here, and that there ought to be a state of
living superior to the earthly forms of life, and is eager to know what is
behind this world, then he is in the first stage of knowledge (Subhechha).
When the enquiring spirit
dawns, one does not merely rest with this spirit, he tries to work for its
manifestation in practical life. One would run about here and there and try to
find out how he can materialise this longing and make it a part of his living
routine. Man, then, becomes a philosopher. A philosopher is in the second stage
of knowledge (Vicharana). He employs his reasoning capacity and works through
his logical acumen, trying to make sense out of this inward spirit of search
for truth, and he utilises his whole life in study and analysis of the nature
of things.
In the third stage, man
becomes a truly spiritual seeker. He does not remain a professor of philosophy
or an academic seeker in the metaphysical sense, but a seeker in the practical
field. He begins to practise knowledge and does not remain merely in a state of
searching for it. The mind is gradually thinned out of all its jarring elements
and it recognises no value in life except a unitive insight into truth.
Practice is the motto of the seeker. He does things, and is not content to
imagine them. This is the third stage of knowledge where one starts actually
doing things, because he has already risen above the state of
conceptualisation, rational study and philosophising. The mind is thinned out
of desires for the external (Tanumanasi).
The fourth stage of knowledge
is supposed to be that state when there are flashes of the divine light
appearing before the meditative consciousness like streaks of lightning
(Sattvapatti). It is not a continued vision, but a passing state of exaltation.
A flash does not continue for a long time. It manifests itself suddenly for a
second and then vanishes as an intense beam of light. This is the fourth state
of consciousness, regarded as the first stage of realisation.
The fourth stage of knowledge
mentioned is considered to be the initial indication of God coming. The earlier
three are only stages of search and practice. The fourth is the first encounter
with the supramundane. The condition of this first stage of realisation or the
fourth stage of knowledge is designated as the condition of the Brahmavit, or
knower of reality, where one begins to see, actually, what is there, rather
than merely think intellectually or imagine in the mind.
Then the fifth stage is
described as a higher realm still, where on account of the immense joy one
experiences beyond description, one is automatically detached from all
objective contacts of sense (Asamsakti). One does not 'practise' renunciation
here. One is spontaneously relieved of all longings in the same way as when one
wakes up from dream there is no longing for the wealth of the dream world.
There are no more realities outside, even as the objects of dream are no more
realities to one who is awake.
In the sixth stage, the
seeking soul becomes a Godman, a veritable divinity moving on earth, where the
world is no more before him but the blaze of the all-enveloping creative spirit
spread out in its splendour and glory. He sees the substance of the world and
not merely the form and the name. He beholds the forms but as constituting a
single interconnected whole. The veil of space and time is lifted. The
conditioning factors, earlier known as space, time and cause, and the internal
empirical relationships, get transcended. One enters into the heart of all things,
the selfhood of every being. Light commingles with light. As a candle flame may
join a candle flame, the self gets attuned to the Universal Self. Here it is
not a beholding through the senses or even a thinking by the mind, but being,
as such. The materiality of the world vanishes (Padarthabhavana). The world
then shines as a radiance and as delight. Earlier it was iron; now it is gold.
The world does not really vanish, but it has become now a different thing. It
has no form; it is a mass of brilliance. The objectness of the objects has
gone; the externality of things is no more; space and time do not exist; one
does not 'see' things, for one has 'become' things. And, still, there is a
higher communion.
The seventh stage is not a
stage of beholding anything at all. There is no beholder any more. The seer is
not dissociated from the seen. There is nothing to act as a bar or a
distinguishing line between the subject and the object. The universe no more
stands there as an object of experience, it is the Subject of All-Experience.
Here, the Universal Spirit is what it is; none is there to know it, or
experience it. It is experience pure. It is experience itself, not an
experience of something. Nothing can be said about it, for there is none to say
anything. This is the final attainment (Turiya).
The seventh stage is also
called, sometimes, 'liberation while living' (Jivanmukti). The body may be
there, but it is no more a body for the knower. What a liberated soul feels, no
one else can understand. There is no standard by which one can judge that
person. The state is beyond imagination. What happens to the soul in
liberation, one has no means to measure or convey. The Goal of life is reached.
Excerpts from:
Stages of Knowledge - The Philosophy of
Religion by Sri Swami Krishnananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?
If you would
like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact
the General Secretary at: generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
