(May 22,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Four Sources of Knowledge by Sri Swami Sivananda

 The Four Sources of Knowledge

Divine Life Society Publication: - The Four Sources of Knowledge by Sri Swami Sivananda

Inspiration, revelation, insight, intuition, ecstasy, divine sight and the supreme, blissful state are the seven planes of knowledge. There are four sources of knowledge: instinct, reason, intuition, and direct knowledge of Brahman (God) or Brahma-Jnana (knowledge of God). 

Instinct
When an ant crawls on your right arm, the left hand automatically moves towards the right arm to drive the ant away. The mind does not reason here. When you see a scorpion near your leg, you withdraw the leg automatically. This is called instinctive or automatic movement. As you cross a street, how instinctively you move your body to save yourself from the cars! There is no thought during such kind of mechanical movement. 

Instinct is found in animals and birds also. In birds, the ego does not interfere with the free, divine flow and play. Hence the work done by them through their instinct is more perfect than that done by human beings. Have you ever noticed the intricate and exquisite work done by birds in the building of their beautiful nests ? 

Reason
Reason is higher than instinct and is found only in human beings. It collects facts, generalizes, reasons out from cause to effect, from effect to cause, from premises to conclusions, from propositions to proofs. It concludes, decides and comes to final judgment. It takes you safely to the door of intuition and leaves you there. 

Belief, reason, knowledge and faith are the four important psychic processes. First you have belief in a doctor. You go to him for diagnosis and treatment. The doctor makes a thorough examination of you and prescribes certain medicines. You take them. You reason out: "Such and such is the disease. The doctor has given me some iron and iodide. Iron will improve my blood. The iodide will stimulate the lymphatics and absorb the exudation and growth in the liver. So I should take it." 

Then, by a regular and systematic course of these drugs, the disease is cured in a month. You then get knowledge and have perfect faith in the efficacy of the medicine and the proficiency of the doctor. You recommend this doctor and his drugs to your friends so that they too might benefit from his treatment. 

Intuition
Intuition is personal spiritual experience. The knowledge obtained through the functioning of the causal body (Karana Sarira) is intuition. Sri Aurobindo calls it the Supermind or Supramental Consciousness. There is direct perception of truth, or immediate knowledge through Samadhi or the Superconscious State. You know things in a flash. 

Professor Bergson preached about intuition in France to make the people understand that there was a higher source of knowledge than the intellect. 

In intuition there is no reasoning process at all. It is direct perception. Intuition transcends reason but does not contradict it. Intellect takes a man to the door of intuition and returns. Intuition is Divya Drishti (divine vision); it is the eye of wisdom. Spiritual flashes and glimpses of truth, inspiration, revelation and spiritual insight come through intuition. 

The mind has to be pure for one to know that it is the intuition that is functioning at a particular moment. 

Direct Knowledge of Brahman (God)

Brahma-Jnana (knowledge of God) is above intuition. It transcends the causal body and is the highest form of knowledge. It is the only Reality.

Excerpts from:

The Four Sources of Knowledge by Sri Swami Sivananda

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
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

(Oct 12,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day –The Seven Stages of Jiva – Ignorance to Liberation

The Seven Stages of Jiva – Ignorance to Liberation

Divine Life Society Publication: Discourse 40 - Commentary on the Panchadasi by Swami Krishnananda

The seven stages – namely, ignorance, veil, vikshepa or distraction, indirect knowledge, direct knowledge, freedom from sorrow, and attainment of bliss – these seven stages are the stages through which the jiva has to pass. They are superimposed on the jiva, and there is tadatmya adhyasa – mutual superimposition – between the condition of the jiva and the stages mentioned.

These seven stages – ignorance onwards until liberation – are conditioning factors of the jiva only and are not to be imagined as being superimposed on Brahman because in that case the whole universe is superimposed on Brahman. That would be to argue that clouds are obstructing the sun. The clouds are not obstructing the sun at all. They are obstructing our vision of the sun. The clouds are not superimposed on the sun so that the sun may be affected by the clouds. Hence, in spite of the fact that there is a complete darkness, as it were, as sometimes when there are thick monsoon clouds during the day, we cannot say that these clouds have affected the sun in any way whatsoever. The sun may not even be aware of what is happening in the world.

All these stages, such as the feeling, "I am samsari, I am bound to earthly existence" and "I am liberated, I am free, I am endowed with knowledge, I am now free from sorrow and I am enjoying bliss or happiness" – are subsequent stages of the jiva only. They are subsequent to the preceding stages, namely, ajnana and avarana, ignorance and veiling. They may appear to be superimposed on Brahman, yet they should not be considered as really connected with Brahman in any way whatsoever because the feelings "I am ignorant" and "I am free" cannot arise in Brahman. Even if there is an eclipse of the sun, the sun is not affected by it. The eclipse is only for us who perceive it.

Now, these seven stages are like processes. They cannot be considered to be moving as processes on Brahman as the base – though, in a way, we may say Brahman is the substratum for all things. To bring the analogy of the sun and the clouds - the movement of the clouds and the darkening that is caused by the movement of the clouds are all to be attributed only to the sun, of course. Yet nothing is to be attributed to the sun.

In order to consider Brahman as the ultimate source of all things, including the jiva and its seven stages, we have said that Brahman is the source of all; but when we say that Brahman is the source of all, we do not actually mean that it is contaminated by the seven stages. Neither is Brahman bound, nor does it aspire for liberation. It only has a relation with jiva. Inasmuch as ultimately everything has to be based on Brahman, we said everything, including the jiva and its ignorance, are also rooted in Brahman. But this is a theoretical concession. Practically, they are not related.

It is something like saying that the sun is the cause of theft taking place in a house. Because there was sunlight, the thief had free access into someone's house. If it was pitch darkness, midnight, it would have been difficult. The sun has contributed to the theft that took place in the house because without its light, the thief would not have succeeded. Can we say the thief has collaborated with the sun? Can we say that some part of the offense goes to the sun because he gave the light? Such is the argument here when we impose the qualities of jiva, such as the seven stages, on Brahman, though without Brahman the stages cannot be there.

The two types of knowledge, indirect and direct – that is to say, knowledge derived through study of scriptures and knowledge derived from instruction through a Guru, dispel ignorance and all the effects of ignorance, such as the wrong notion that God does not exist or that there is no proof for the existence of God because God is not visible. This kind of erroneous argument based on ignorance also gets dispelled when knowledge dawns in a person in both indirect and direct forms.

There are two kinds of ignorance, two phases of ignorance, rather: asattavarana and abhana avarana. Due to the avarana of maya, known as asattavarana, one has no consciousness of even the existence of Brahman. Even the remote idea of their being such a thing as Brahman cannot arise in the mind due to this avarana called asattavarana. Avarana, or veil, instills the wrong notion into the mind so that one is made to feel it does not exist. The proper instruction received from the Guru will dispel this peculiar secondary ignorance which is the cause of the feeling that God does not exist or Brahman is not there.

The other one is abhana avarana, the veil that covers the consciousness of there being such a thing at all called Brahman. Direct knowledge or actual experience of Brahman dispels the other kind of ignorance which covers the consciousness of Brahman. That is to say, direct knowledge or experience makes one immediately conscious of Brahman as identical with one's own self.

When the entanglement of the jiva in the world and the feeling that one is entangled in samsara vanishes on account of the other feeling that one is now free from all these entanglements, unlimited bliss arises inside because no sorrow can once again inflict the person. Once ignorance has vanished, it cannot come again. Then the happiness that we experience at that time, the bliss of experience, is indescribable, unthinkable, passing understanding.

The ignorance of the jiva is to be dispelled by indirect knowledge derived from scripture, Guru’s instruction, and direct experience.

The light of Brahman illumines itself through the words of the Guru on the one hand, and manana – the intellectual investigative process – and nididhyasana conducted by the disciple.

"God exists. God is inseparable from me." Asti Brahma means Brahman exists. Aham Brahma means I am verily that. After the assertion or the conviction that Brahman is, the other experience has to dawn in the person – namely, "I am that very thing. I am that."

This kind of experience which is for the time being designated as indirect knowledge is not to be shunned as of no utility, because this indirect knowledge itself gradually ripens into direct experience. The direct experience does not negate the indirect knowledge that we have already acquired. It only fructifies in a more mature manner. The earlier experience of the fact that Brahman exists will become more mature and get fructified in the subsequent experience, "I am verily that." Asti Brahma and Aham Brahma –"Brahman is" and "I am verily that" – are not two contradictory experiences. The one leads to the other.

Hence, the existence aspect of Brahman which becomes the content of indirect knowledge should not be considered as ignorance. Many people feel that intellectual knowledge, learning, are absolutely useless. It is not so because there is an organic connection between the lower knowledge and the higher knowledge. All knowledge which is rational, intellectual, scriptural and that which is obtained through the Guru is very useful. It will itself mature into direct experience later on. The lower knowledge becomes higher knowledge by growth in its dimension and in its quality.

Continue to Read:

The Seven Stages through which the Jiva has to Pass - Commentary on the Panchadasi by Swami Krishnananda

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
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

(Oct 5,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Analogy of the Tenth Man

The Analogy of the Tenth Man

Divine Life Society Publication: The Philosophy of the Panchadasi – by Swami Krishnananda

A distinction between direct and indirect knowledge, as well as knowledge and ignorance, in the case of the Atman, is possible, as could be illustrated by the following analogy:

One of the ten persons that crossed a river, while counting the number among them that have safely reached the other bank, lost consciousness of one among them, namely himself, by forgetting himself in directing his attention entirely to the others whom he was counting. This state of not finding the tenth person out of the group, though he is really there, is Ajnana or ignorance of truth. The consequent feeling that the tenth person is not there, and is not seen, is Avarana or the veil that casts itself over one’s consciousness. The subsequent grief, due to the feeling that the tenth person is dead, is Vikshepa or the distraction that arises out of it. The faith that the tenth person is alive, which arises when they are told about the fact by a friend who passes by, is the indirect knowledge obtained through a teacher, that the object of quest is, after all, there. When the tenth man is told that he himself is the one whom he has been searching all the while, the knowledge that arises in him - the indirect knowledge or experience. This leads to the satisfaction that the object sought for has been gained, and all sorrow departs.

The Chidabhasa (the lower ‘I’) is in a similar position. It is the tenth man struggling in ignorance and its effects. It is engrossed in the perception of the world of objects, and as its attention is completely lost in them, it never realizes that there is the eternal Atman, which is itself in truth. This is Ajnana. It further feels that the Atman is not there, and is not seen. This is Avarana. It then feels, again, that it is the doer, enjoyer, and so on. This is Vikshepa. When a competent person instructs it that the Atman exists, it has Paroksha-Jnana, or indirect knowledge. When it is told that it is itself the Atman, and there comes about this realization due to intense meditation, there is Aparoksha-Jnana or direct knowledge. Then the grief-ridden world, with agency, enjoyment, etc., vanishes, and it arrives at the supreme satisfaction that on the realization of the Atman, everything necessary has been done, and obtained. Here the goal of life of the Chidabhasa is reached. (Verses 21-32)

Excerpts from:

The Philosophy of the Panchadasi – by Swami Krishnananda

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
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

(Oct 3,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Four Sources of Knowledge by Swami Sivananda

 The Four Sources of Knowledge

Divine Life Society Publication: The Four Sources of Knowledge – by Swami Sivananda

Inspiration, revelation, insight, intuition, ecstasy, divine sight and the supreme, blissful state are the seven planes of knowledge. There are four sources of knowledge: instinct, reason, intuition, and direct knowledge of Brahman (God) or Brahma-Jnana (knowledge of God).

Instinct

When an ant crawls on your right arm, the left hand automatically moves towards the right arm to drive the ant away. The mind does not reason here. When you see a scorpion near your leg, you withdraw the leg automatically. This is called instinctive or automatic movement. As you cross a street, how instinctively you move your body to save yourself from the cars! There is no thought during such kind of mechanical movement.

Instinct is found in animals and birds also. In birds, the ego does not interfere with the free, divine flow and play. Hence the work done by them through their instinct is more perfect than that done by human beings. Have you ever noticed the intricate and exquisite work done by birds in the building of their beautiful nests ?

Reason

Reason is higher than instinct and is found only in human beings. It collects facts, generalizes, reasons out from cause to effect, from effect to cause, from premises to conclusions, from propositions to proofs. It concludes, decides and comes to final judgment. It takes you safely to the door of intuition and leaves you there.

Belief, reason, knowledge and faith are the four important psychic processes. First you have belief in a doctor. You go to him for diagnosis and treatment. The doctor makes a thorough examination of you and prescribes certain medicines. You take them. You reason out: "Such and such is the disease. The doctor has given me some iron and iodide. Iron will improve my blood. The iodide will stimulate the lymphatics and absorb the exudation and growth in the liver. So I should take it."

Then, by a regular and systematic course of these drugs, the disease is cured in a month. You then get knowledge and have perfect faith in the efficacy of the medicine and the proficiency of the doctor. You recommend this doctor and his drugs to your friends so that they too might benefit from his treatment.

Intuition

Intuition is personal spiritual experience. The knowledge obtained through the functioning of the causal body (Karana Sarira) is intuition. Sri Aurobindo calls it the Supermind or Supramental Consciousness. There is direct perception of truth, or immediate knowledge through Samadhi or the Superconscious State. You know things in a flash.

Professor Bergson preached about intuition in France to make the people understand that there was a higher source of knowledge than the intellect.

In intuition there is no reasoning process at all. It is direct perception. Intuition transcends reason but does not contradict it. Intellect takes a man to the door of intuition and returns. Intuition is Divya Drishti (divine vision); it is the eye of wisdom. Spiritual flashes and glimpses of truth, inspiration, revelation and spiritual insight come through intuition.

The mind has to be pure for one to know that it is the intuition that is functioning at a particular moment.

Brahma-Jnana (knowledge of God) is above intuition. It transcends the causal body and is the highest form of knowledge. It is the only Reality.

Excerpts from:

The Four Sources of Knowledge – by Swami Sivananda
 

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
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