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The light within

CHENNAI: The quest for spiritual knowledge is a process of introversion of the mind for which it is necessary to distinguish between the Self (Atman, Brahman) and the non-Self. An individual is aware that he knows or does not know with reference to a particular knowledge. So there is no room for absolute non-knowledge. For example, in the state of sleep a person is unaware of anything but on waking up he becomes aware that he slept peacefully. Without the “I” no knowledge is possible. In that case the questions that will arise are: is the “I” then the fount of all knowledge? If it is, then how does one know it? Is there another form of knowledge to learn this knowledge?

In his discourse, Sri K.Srinivasan said the Upanishads addressed these questions to distinguish between knowledge, which was the essential nature of the Self, and objective knowledge pertaining to everything else in the world. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad through the dialogue between King Janaka and Sage Yajnavalkya probes into this to arrive at the conclusion that it is the Self which is the light (knowledge) within, which illumines even when all extraneous sources of light are not there: “When the sun and the moon have both set, the fire has gone out, and speech has stopped, Yajnavalkya, what exactly serves as the light for a man?” “The Self serves as his light. It is through the light of the Self that he sits, goes out, works and returns.” This Upanishad terms Self-knowledge as Self-luminosity.

It is by identification of the Self with the body that all worldly interactions are possible. When this identification is negated in the dream state, the Self withdraws from the body, and in this state it is the life force (Prana) that sustains the body. In sleep there is no knowledge and only on waking up does the person recall having slept peacefully. So in sleep the Self withdraws from both the body and the mind, and because of ignorance (Ajnana) he is not aware of anything. The dream experiences and the recall of having slept peacefully are due to the light within—the Self. The state in which ignorance does not veil the mind is that of a Jnani’s (man of wisdom).

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