Page 332 - Basic Writings of Sriramchandra

Basic Writings of Sri Ramchandra
But now having been acquainted with momentum and undergone its pleasing effect to a great extent, the thought of search for peace began to creep up in our mind by itself. When we started the search, our attention was transfixed upon calmness, which we understood to be somewhat more pleasant. But so far we knew not what it actually was nor had we any taste of it. Experience promoted our understanding and we began to feel that it is undoubtedly something worth achieving, though we had not experienced it as yet. This is what may be presumed asthepreliminarylevelofjnana1orknowledge. People
1 jnana - The word in the ordinary sense means knowledge, which may be of different kinds, physical, mental, material or spiritual. In the spiritual sense the term is applied so vaguely that often it becomes very difficult to understand its true significance. The range it covers extends from the baser level of common understanding to higher level of inner enlightenment. This gives rise to a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. A man who has learnt a few scriptures, another who can argue and assert things on the basis of his book knowledge, still another who recites every moment set phrases like ‘aham brahmasmi-I am Brahma’ etc., claims to be a jnani or the enlightened and is accepted as such by the masses, irrespective of his real inner state. Jnana in the real sense refers to the inner condition of the mind, which an abhyasi develops during the course of his pursuit, while passing through different spiritual states at different knots or granthis. Jnana is in fact the realisation of the conditions prevailing at each knot. Now since the knots are innumerable, the knowledge gained is also different according to the level of approach of the abhyasi. Thus it is almost meaningless to call one a jnani without defining his level of approach or the limit of knowledge realised by him. This is the main point, which is meant to be elucidated to the readers through the contents of this little book.
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