[Advaita-l] The Nature of Ātmajñānam'

[Jaishankar Narayanan]

Namaste,

Recently I was asked to give a talk on the topic 'Ajñāna as Jñāna-virodhi
and the Nature of Ātmajñānam' as part of the 10th Aradhana Celebrations of
my Guru Pujya Swami Dayandanda Saraswati ji. I am sharing an edited excerpt
of the talk, focusing on the nature of knowledge, below for the benefit of
mumukshus.

with love and prayers,
Jaishankar

Knowledge as removal of covering

Pujya Swami Dayandanda ji gave a talk to teachers about Guru. Guru is the
one who dispels ignorance or he is the remover of ignorance. Swamiji said
that the teacher does not really produce any new knowledge or give
knowledge. Teacher is only removing ignorance. He gave the example of a
sculptor. A sculptor when he sees the stone he is already seeing Krishna
there and all he is doing is, he is removing whatever is covering Krishna
and then Krishna manifests there. So, Pujya Swami ji used to give this
sculptor analogy to show that basically knowledge is not produced but
ajnāna alone is removed.

Swamiji says that fact is already in the mind of the teacher. Whatever the
guru already knows well he is the one which is communicated to the students
who are covered by ignorance. So the idea here is all knowledge is already
there in ishvara. All knowledge is already there and the same consciousness
only is manifest in all the Upadhis also, as the witness. And all knowledge
being there it should have been available to everybody, but it is not
available, because of the covering. That's where the ignorance as a
covering is very important.

The very fact that we have to use our mind to know something points to the
covering. So, the covering has to be removed. The mano-vritti brings an
object to light by removing the cover of ajnāna.

Ātmajñāna as Mano-vṛtti

What Pujya Swami Dayandanda ji is saying can be seen in different places in
the Bhashya also. First, we have to understand that this Advaita Jnānam or
Atma Jnānam itself is a mano-vritti. In the Chandogya Sambandha Bhashya
Bhāṣyakāra clearly says Advaita Jnānam is mano-vritti-mātram.  Upanishads
are also saying manasā eva āptavyam and manasā eva anudraṣtavyam.
Mano-vritti means it is mano-vikāra - It is a modification of the mind
only. Any modification is a kārya.

The mind itself if we consider as a karana for manovritti, like the clay is
the kārana for a pot then each vritti can be considered as a mano-kārya.
And our siddhānta is satkāryavāda. We say all effects of a cause are
already potentially present in the cause. The cause manifesting as one
particular effect is covering all other effects which are unmanifest in the
cause. That means the mind is already there with the potential for every
kind of vritti. The effort we are taking then is to manifest a particular
vritti which is going to give us the Advaita Jnāna. If the possibility of
that vritti is not there then nobody will even pursue the knowledge.

Bhāṣyakāra gives this argument in the Bṛ Up. Ghata Bhāṣya. He says if the
pot is not already there in clay potentially, nobody will even make an
effort to make the pot. You already know that pot is potentially there in
the clay, that's why we even make the effort for creating the pot out of
the clay. Like that our mind is already potentially having the akhandākāra
vritti. All we have to do is manifest it. Any other mano vritti is a
covering / āvaraNa for the viveka-jnānam known as akhanda-ākāra-vritti.

Ajñāna as Āvaraṇa in Bhagavad Gītā

Bhagavān Krishna and Bhāṣyakāra are talking about ajnānam as an āvarana -
ajnānena āvritam jnānam. Bhāṣyakāra says in the Bhāṣya of the Gita verse
5.15 that viveka-jnānam is covered. This also goes along with what our
Pujya Swamji is saying. Already viveka-jnānam, atma-jnānam is there in
Ishwara and in other gurus in the paramparā. It is already present. It is
only covered for the ajnānis. Due to the covering of the viveka-jnānam they
are all deluded - tena muhyanti jantavah.

The viveka-jnānam is uncovered for the guru. So, the guru is able to
communicate that. In the next verse Bhagavān says jnānena tu tad ajnānam
eṣām nāṣitam ātmanah teṣām ādityavad jnānam prakāṣayati tat param. Here
Bhāṣyakāra says this ajnāna by which everybody is covered, when it is
destroyed by the viveka-jnāna the paramārtha tattva / svaroopa jnāna shines
on everything, like even the sun shines.

Mokshā has to be nitya

If we say jnānam is newly created in jnāna-abhāva state then there will be
a problem because the vritti jnānam itself is transient. It will go away in
a kṣanam (refer Mandukya Bhashya 7 jñānasya dvaitanivṛtti-kṣaṇa-vyatirekeṇa
kṣaṇāntarānavasthānāt, avasthāne vā anavasthā-prasaṅgād dvaitānivṛttiḥ). If
the vritti-jnānam has gone away in a kṣanam then there is jnāna-abhāva
again. Then again you will become a samsāri.  That is why Pujya Swami
Dayandanda ji used to say ajnana is destroyed because once it is destroyed,
destruction is permanent. So, Mokshā is nitya.

The Timira Dṛṣṭānta (Cataract Analogy)

In the Bhāṣya for Kathopaniṣad vākya manasā eva āptavyam Bhāṣyakāra says
prāg ekatva vijnānād  ācharya āgama samskrtena manasā eva idam brahma
ekarasam āptavyam - it has to be seen only by the mind which is matured
enough and which is prepared by the teachings of the ācharya and āgama.
Further he says yastu punaravidyātimiradṛṣṭiṃ na muñcati iha brahmaṇi
nāneva paśyati – avidyā is compared to a timira here. Timira is like a
cataract. This avidyā-timira Dṛṣṭānta clearly says that it is not
ātma-svarupa, it is a doṣa which is there in the karana, instrument – a
covering that can be removed.

The Jñānī Can Claim Self-Knowledge (Atmajnāna)

Further the pūrvapakṣa is that nobody can even claim they are a jnāni once
they get jnānam. This is explicitly negated by the Kena Upaniṣad where the
sishyā claims ‘manye viditam’. Bhāṣyakāra gives here very clearly how he
arrived at that understanding - Having analysed whatever was said by the
Veda and the teacher and also assimilating it, ascertaining it with tarka
and making it his own anubhava, then he says manye aham atha idānim viditam
brahma iti - brahman is known by me. In the Bṛhadaranyaka Upaniṣad too
Vamadeva claims he is a jnāni. Similarly, Triṣanku in the Taittiriya
Upaniṣad. The jnāni can claim that I know brahman and I am a jnāni - there
is nothing wrong in that. Otherwise, one cannot even teach properly. If it
is not your jnānam you will not be able to teach it.

Knowledge will take place when taught by a Brahmabhūta Guru

Further in the Kathopanishad 1.2.8 Bhashya, Acharya says ‘athavā procyamāna
brahmātmabhūtena ācāryeṇa ananyatayā prokte ātmani agatiḥ
anavabodho'parijñānam atra nāsti’ - when taught by an acharya who himself
is ananya with brahman then there cannot be not understanding, there cannot
be imprecise knowledge. To this hearer the knowledge about that Self does
come as, 'I am that (Self)', just as it did in the case of the teacher.
This is the idea. Whenever we attended Pujya Swami Dayandanda ji's class we
can never say that we did not understand what Swamiji revealed to us. So,
every sishyā is really a jnāni but whether one is able to own it up or not
is a different thing. That may take some time.

We were fortunate to be his disciples and can say with certainty that the
above is true in his case. None of the disciples of Puja Swami Dayandanda
ji can say they are not jnāni, not knowers of the truth of the Self,
although they may be in different stages of assimilation of the knowledge
and enjoyment of the fruits of knowledge. As Vidyaranya says at the end of
the Triptideepa Prakaranam in his Panchadashi

अहो शास्त्रम् अहो शास्त्रम् अहो गुरुः अहो गुरुः ।
अहो ज्ञानम् अहो ज्ञानम् अहो सुखम् अहो सुखं ॥
aho śāstram aho śāstram aho guruḥ aho guruḥ ।
aho jñānam aho jñānam aho sukham aho sukhaṃ ॥
Oh! Great are the scriptures!
Oh! Great is the guru!
Oh! Great is knowledge!

Om Tat Sat