Pure knowledge by becoming one with the subject

Nyayashastras talk about three connectivities involved in the process of cognition, the one between object & the sense organ, sense organ & the mind and between mind & Atma. 

Object ---------> Sense organ ---------> Mind ---------> Atma (Consciousness)

Any knowledge gained will always be conditioned by these three connectivities, limitations in any one of these will result in skewed or lopsided knowledge, in other words distorted image.

In this second chapter, krishna is helping arjuna discover his true self, at a gross level, he is pandu putra, kunti suta, kshyatriya, etc. Though they all are true, it is still a distorted image. Understanding of oneself will be distorted until we keep ourselves away from the true self.

As long as there is disconnect between Nara and Narayana, Pashu and Pashupathi we cannot know either Narayana or Pashupati. As long as there is disconnect between Boss and Das, Boss cannot know his subordinates.

Now modern management philosophy also talks about flat organization without hierarchical difference between Boss and subordinates. This advaita bhava towards subject of interest will result in pure knowledge brahma vidya.

·         -> Like a salt doll trying to measure the depth of ocean;

·         -> like a drop of milk trying to know the water;

·         -> like a drop of honey trying to understand a glass of milk;

true knowledge will emerge only when they become one with each other. Unlikely for a drop of ghee trying to know the glass of water without becoming one with it.

Similarly, we cannot know ourselves without becoming one with the self. Meditation techniques like Cyclic meditation, Vipasyana, Transcendental meditation etc help us to take this journey of knowing self.

तदेवार्थमात्रनिर्भासं स्वरूपशून्यमिव समाधिः॥ पा यो सू ३-३॥

Once a brilliant boy, who was weak in studies especially mathematics, meet me in school. During the interaction, he portrayed a detailed picture of Entebbe operation done by Israeli commandos, he felt as if he was one among those commandos, he thought there was no other bigger mission in life than participating in such a commando operation. That boy had reached ekatmate (intimacy) with that commando operation.

Once Dr. Fritjof Capra, a well-known Physicist was sitting on sea shore and observing the waves. After some time, during a moment of deep concentration, he felt everything in this creation is nothing but vibrations, vibrations of electrons and molecules in the atomic level to that of planets and stars at the cosmic level. A gigantic dance of creation and destruction, interplay between mass and energy, he correlated this experience with the idea of tandava nrutya, the cosmic dance performed by Shiva to maintain the dynamic equilibrium of this creation. Dr. Capra would have reached oneness with the creation when he discovered this theory of vibrations.

So, to summarize, any knowledge within the realm of object, sense organ and mind is superficial and lopsided. Pure knowledge emerges only when it is elevated to atma level i.e. when brought in contact with the universal consciousness All weaknesses (like fear and ignorance) will vanish when this ekatmate with the subject emerges, this is knowing by becoming one and becoming one while knowing.

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References:

Operation Entebbe,  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Entebbe

 

The Tao of Physics, Fritjof Capra, 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tao_of_Physics

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