Page 333 - Basic Writings of Sriramchandra

Towards Infinity - Knowledge - Jnana
may, however, call this understanding as true knowledge but actually it amounts only to recognition that there is a state known as peace or tranquillity. This is generally the level of a common man where he gets enlisted as jnani (agnostic) merely for the reason of knowing so much. That is the only significance of jnana (knowledge) in the eyes of a common man.
How this came about is not difficult to understand. The connecting link between the animate and the inanimate is its root. A poison and its antidote are mostly found adjacent to each other. When we are in the state of inanimation it is but natural to think of animation because it is at the base of the inanimate and both states are interrelated. Now the first thought that flashed across the mind was to proceed towards animation, which constituted our very first step towards growth. It is a matter of fact that our vision fails to apprehend a thing situated at a very high or a very low level. But since man occupies the middle position, the medium state or samavastha came to his lot. What can that middle point in us be? It is only the heart and it is at this point that the connecting link between the animate and inanimate is most clearly felt. This is the reason why meditation on heart is very useful. Now either we ourselves thought of it or the environments pushed us that way, anyhow we leaned towards animate consciousness. But so long as the sense of consciousness lingers, the idea of worldliness exists and this the pseudo seers have called as Jnana or knowledge.
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