Chapter 19 - Jnana Yoga - The Yoga of Discrimination
There is yet another path to God, the path of discrimination, the path of understanding, of intellect, of reasoning. It is a path particularly familiar to the Occidental mind, being the path of natural sciences. And these natural sciences today have reached a limit beyond which our material knowledge is threatened with annihilation. Science has discovered that in the infinitely big as in the infinitely small the heretofore irrefutable law of causation, which says that every event or phenomenon results from an adequate or antecedent cause, is no longer valid. Here lies the real reason for the deep distress of our times, the reason why philosophy and the arts carry the seal of decay.
Jnana Yoga turns from the consideration of the exterior world to that of the world within us. The natural scientist would discover what moves matter; Jnana Yoga seeks the secret of what moves us, the secret of what we call the soul.
"The wise sees in himself the Atman,
Gazing inward, seeking what is eternal."
It is, in a way, the "know thyself" of the inscription at Delphi with which Jnana Yoga is concerned. But it is not, as often in Occidental philosophy, a question of knowing what we are, but rather a question of learning how to be who we are.
The Vedanta praises the human intellect as one of the greatest gifts of God. Like imagination, it is a path to Him. But with the intellect alone we are as unable to reach God as with the emotions alone. For the Hindu this is no reason to despise the intellect. To Hindu thought, a godless man is almost to be preferred to one not making use of his reasoning powers.
Where Bhakti Yoga has followed the path of affirmation, of synthesis, so Jnana Yoga follows the path of negation, of analysis. All the tools of our consciousness are examined one by one, and one by one it is recognized: I am not this, nor that. And thus, at last we arrive at the core of our being, recognizing it as the "I".
The path of discriminative understanding is much more difficult than the path of Love. It lacks the bridges of imagination. It is a rocky path along an abyss. But it is just the same closer to our Western mode of thinking than any of the other Yogas. Nevertheless it is almost as difficult to sum up the teachings of Jnana Yoga as to sum up the results of all the Western systems of philosophy.
According to Hindu philosophy, the world of our perceptions is not the same as the world of reality. In order to grasp the "real" reality we must, therefore, first examine the manner in which we arrive at our perceptions. We must examine our five senses by means of which we arrive at our perceptions. We must examine our five senses by means of which the exterior impressions are transmitted to us. For the Hindu, these senses, touch, hearing, sight, taste and smell are contrasted by five acting senses, the functions of which are breathing, evacuating, digesting etc. ... But who is the "hearer of the hearing, the seer of the seeing"? According to Eastern thought, we become conscious of the sense impressions through a centre called Cittam, what we call the intellect. This Cittam has three aspects, the ramifications of which it would be too complicated to follow here. The idea is of an instrument which receives, projects and registers at the same time. The following example will illustrate the functioning of this instrument.
You meet a tiger and you run. The two, - seeing, running, follow so rapidly one upon the other, that they seem one and we are not aware at all that the perception of the tiger is followed by the projection: "Out there is an animal" followed by the registration: "It is a tiger and a tiger is a dangerous animal" whereupon follows the decision to run. The Cittam, the intellect, has three aspects and reacts in different ways. A Hindu would but it this way: As a woman can be a wife, mother and daughter at the same time, depending upon the viewpoint, so the Cittam can be a perception, projection and registration, depending on how it reacts. Another example: We hear the ticking of a clock. The ear receives the sound waves and transmits the stimulus to the centre of perception in the brain, called Indriya by the Indians. This centre receives the stimulus and presents it to the Cittam. In the Cittam, or intellect, the perception is registered: "I hear a noise." In another part of the intellect, called Manas, this is organised in space and time: "I hear a ticking." Finally in yet another part, the Buddhi, where lies the faculty of remembering and classifying, the conclusion is drawn: "It is a clock which ticks."
Modern science is not sure as to whether an animal can remember consciously and draw conclusions. For the Indians, it possesses this faculty at least in a latent degree. The elephant is said to have it. But even then animals lack the faculty of thinking in opposites and of forming abstract notions. And in this faculty lies the fundamental difference between man and animal.
The first contrast that appears in the human mind or consciousness is that between the "I" and the "non-I". A dog, in the above example, would say: "Toto hears ticking", but not "I hear ticking." The acquisition of the I-consciousness in man is probably of comparatively recent origin. Little children do not possess it and have to learn it. Only then the originally one splits into two, into the opposites of I and not-I, in things conscious and unconscious. Here also begins the human development in the direction of the divine. Here lies the origin of the symbol of the fruits from the tree of knowledge and the exile from paradise. The I-consciousness is called Ahamkara by the Indians and it is the motor which sets in motion our conscious will. To Indian wisdom this will is threefold, in accordance with the division body, soul, spirit: Body, the will to live; Soul, the I-will, the conscious will; Spirit, the cosmic, free will.
It is our conscious will which is, in the last analysis, responsible for our destiny. One of the Upanishads (literally: secret teaching, the most mysterious part of the Vedanta) says: "Man is made entirely of desire. As is his desire, so is his will; as is his will, so is his action (Karma). And as his action, so he will fare."
It is therefore on our conscious will that we must work if we wish to change our destiny. If we give free reign to our bodily will to live, our libido, as the psychoanalyst would call it, it will aim at the satisfaction of desire. This satisfaction is achieved mostly at the expense of others. This is contrary to the cosmic will. Our actions in the direction of the satisfaction of our desires create a reaction on the part of the cosmic will in the form of a prevention of our desires. Here lies the cause of all sorrow. All sorrow is prevented wish-fulfillment. We shall suffer as long as we have not learned that our ego cannot be satisfied at the expense of other egos. The egotistic will is not free to do as it pleases. Real freedom lies beyond. When we finally grasp this fact we can pray: "thy will be done".
The road to freedom, the road to free action outside the chain of cause and effect is, paradoxically, an abstention from action, a negative will, the negation of our Ahamkara, the egotistical reaction in us. Every action which is contrary to our ego, every action of love is not bound to the chain of cause and effect and sets us free. In asceticism we find the highest expression of the negation of the egoistical will.
This "rendering conscious" of our ego-will, this mastery, this overcoming alone gives us the possibility of changing our character and thereby changing our destiny. In this change lies possibly our evolution towards a higher state in nature. The heightening of our consciousness through mental analysis is the way to liberation of Jnana Yoga.
We sometimes say in retrospect: "I did not mean to do this," and thereby condemn an action of ours performed on impulse. The force which condemns our action is our conscience. Our conscience looks upon us from a distance. It lies between existence and the real, inner self. Here man has reached the world of abstract ideas. Here is freedom. But the conscience is not yet "the seer of seeing, the hearer of hearing." Eternally unchanged and unchangeable, the Seer stands behind, or above the psychic organism, called lingam, or soul and of which the conscience is only the highest part. The Self, however, is the Seer and Hearer, the Spectator of Life. Indians call this nucleus of being the Atman, the Self. It reflects the impressions of the soul, but is not affected by them. For the self all things are one. This ultimate entity of man is not touched by opposites; these are felt only by the egotistical will, the small I. The Atman is real and eternal. And thus, according to the path of Janana, when we have finally realized who it is that hears, feels, that asks etc., then we are free from the illusion that the impressions of our senses have any reality whatsoever. According to this view, the knowledge we acquire by means of our brain is only a transitory stage, a stepping-stone to true knowledge which lies in the Atman, the "knower of knowledge". The knower is the Atman, the world of outer impressions is Maya, illusion. The Atman, the Self, the Divine Ground of Being is pure spirit and has no part of matter, or Maya.
The same conclusion has been drawn by Christian mystics and by the founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. This shows that the great religious truths are everywhere closely related, that in all races and at all times the reality of man is the same.
And thus finally the path of Jnana Yoga arrives at the goal of Oneness. The Atman, the Self is God, the ultimate reality. He is one and undivided in every man. All creation is only a manifestation, a form of Brahman, a quality, an attribute of God, nothing else. Only as long as we believe to be of this world can the world have power over us. Once this error is recognized we are free. We have come out of freedom, are bound for a while and we return to freedom. Freedom is not a place, however, but a condition. There is no place where there could be freedom, every place being bound to space and this subject to the laws of space. And that is why Jesus Christ says: "The Kingdom is in you".
Next Chapter ð
Previous Chapter ï
Back to Contents Å