The Bhagavad Gita brings the realisation of the highest truth within the grasp of each and every individual who is keen to seek it. At every stage of His teaching, Krishna narrows the gap between philosophy and practicality to enable every seeker participate in this quest, said Srimati Sunanda in a discourse. The power of yoga is the fundamental factor in the sphere of spiritual advancement and it pertains to inner life. Krishna shows how this power can be accessed and harnessed with continuous effort and one-pointed determination. All depends on how one learns to guard oneself from the pulls of the body mind intellect to remain with the thoughts of the Truth of Brahman in one’s inner self. This is the state of realisation. It is not attained by mere study and mastery of the Vedas.
A course in the Vedas and the Upanishads may make one a Vedic scholar. He may be adept to discuss and debate on the theory of the self or Brahman with much felicity and even hold audiences spell bound. But whether he has realised the truth as an inner experience is the question and he alone can answer it. It is gauged only by each one’s honest self testimony.
Rabindranath Tagore’s observation that the world is full of sound scholars but it is rare to find sound men draws attention to the difference between knowledge acquisition and knowledge assimilation. So, when realised souls such as the seers in the Upanishads speak of their awareness of the imperishable Brahman, and state with conviction “I know the Supreme Brahman of effulgence beyond the darkness,” the words ring with the very vision and experience of the Eternal Truth. Such statements on Brahman are on a different plane unlike the intellectual utterances of well versed scholars. The imperishable quality of Brahman is to be realised as a truth and not as an utterance.
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