Gita for Youth - Yoga of Knowledge and Wisdom (Jnana Vijnana Yoga)

Chapter 7: The Yoga of Knowledge & Special Wisdom

As Sri Ramakrishna had said in the Gospel, by knowledge or jnana is meant realizing God, while vijnana or special wisdom means living that perpetual bliss by being close to Him, establishing a relationship with Him and ever basking in the glory of that relationship. In his inimitable style he said, some only gets to know that there is something called milk, some have seen milk while some have drunk milk and become nourished thereby. He gave another example - some knows that there is fire in wood, some seen that fire, while a few have actually lit that fire, prepared a nice meal and got satisfied thereby. The one who gets nourished, i.e. enriched by the constant nearness of God is a vijnani, of special wisdom.

The Lord Krishna said, “By being devoted to Me and by taking Me as refuge, engage yourself in Yoga, for verily, I am everything. Listen to the discourse which will enable you to understand this! I now convey to you that complete special knowledge and wisdom, knowing which there is nothing else to be known (in this world).”

 “Out of thousands of men, a few strive to achieve perfection. Of those few, only a handful comes to know me as the true essence of all.”

Lord Krishna then narrated His natures, which He classified as apparent nature and real nature. He said that the five elements which include Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space, Mind, Intellect and Ego, these are the eightfold divisions of His nature. However these are all inferior characteristics.

He then lets Arjuna know about His real nature, the nature by which He sustains the entire universe along with the beings therein.

The nature consisting of the eightfold divisions is modifiable, it always undergo decomposition and synthesis. This nature is thus inferior, apparent or material. Anything which undergoes modification cannot be the real nature of God as God is non decaying, beyond modification. Therefore there is a real nature which is eternal, which is consciousness itself, which does not change with time and space. It is this nature that is responsible for preservation through all ages. Even when one reaches the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new cycle of creation, preservation and destruction, the unmanifest form of God remains with His essence in sustaining the new cycle.

Lord Krishna now says, “Know this (real nature) to be the birth womb of all creatures. I am the very beginning and the dissolution of life and universe.”

From unmanifest or God all the material beings born and unto God they dissolve. This cycle of creation, preservation and dissolution continues at different scales, from the smallest organism to the entire universe with galaxies and stars.

The Lord proclaimed, “There is nothing in this universe and beyond that is without or apart from Me. I am that eternal thread to which every material being in this Universe is fixed, like gems on a necklace.”

God is everywhere. He is not merely in a high heaven sitting with the rod of chastisement on a golden throne. He is present in everything and everything is present in Him. He, as the Supreme Being or Brahman is the vast body of this Universe. He is in the heart of every being. He is the largest as well as the smallest. He is like that spider which spins its web from its body and then resides in it, itself becoming the web. The metaphor of gems on a necklace is one of the most beautiful ones that can be found in any scripture. He is everything and has everything within Him. Everything is interconnected through Him. Without the thread the pearls cannot stay in place. Without Him the Universe loses its meaning because He is the universe. That is the essence of true knowledge. This is also in a sense Advaita or Non Duality. Advaita means oneness, the grand unity that pervades everything and everybody. Since the Supreme Being is everything and everything is in the Supreme Being, Advaita is the guiding principle of the universe, but this knowledge is hard to realize and therefore Dvaita or Duality, seeing God as separate from the individual being, is an easier way for an aspirant.