Miscellaneous - Religion   

Pragmatic approach

CHENNAI: Brahma Jnana is the knowledge of the immutable, eternal, timeless existence of the Self and its identification with the Infinite. It is a direct and immediate experience when one attains the vision of God, and when all thoughts cease and silence remains. It is a state of the highest bliss.

In a lecture, Swami Gautamananda said that in Sri Ramakrishna's viewpoint attaining the final goal of Brahma Jnana demands tremendous practice. His matter-of-fact advice to his disciples in the initial stages of practice was to adopt the stance of a devotee or a servant to God, to enable the cultivation of the virtues such as humility and forbearance.

The lives of saints and seers establish the efficacy of this Bhakti bhava in enabling the direct perception and consciousness of God. Such realised souls were able to see God's presence in the individual beings and the empirical world.

Steeped in Avidya (ignorance) the individual soul is distracted with the dazzle of the material world and sense objects, and is prevented from recognising its undying nature.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna explains the difference between the ignorant and the wise. The illumined soul is always awake in the knowledge of the Atman.

"He who is ignorant of the Atman is always in darkness, though awake in the knowledge of the sense life that he presumes to be daylight. He is wakeful to the nature of reality to which the unwise is asleep or indifferent. What is night for all beings is the time of waking for the disciplined soul. And what is the time of waking for all beings is night for the sage of vision".

As a geologist spots the presence of precious diamonds in what may appear as mere stones to an untrained eye, the wise perceive amidst the ephemeral nature of existence the Brahman that supports the universe.

The knowledge of the permanent link of the soul with the divine that continues through the cycle of births is the spark that kindles devotion.

In his hymn Bhaja Govindam, Adi Sankara advocates seeking refuge in God as necessary to overcome ignorance.

It is through Sadhana that involves the practice of good conduct, devotion to God, service to the preceptor, and the company of the pious that one can be ever alert and awake to the presence of God.

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