Gita Rahasya -Tilak 451

Srimad Bhagavadgita-Rahasya OR Karma-Yoga-Sastra -Bal Gangadhar Tilak

CHAPTER XIII THE PATH OF DEVOTION Though these two paths are at first different having regard to the qualification of the man, they are ultimately of the same value in effect, and are both called ' Adhyatma ' (the Philosophy of the Absolute Self) in the Gita . But although Knowledge and Devotion are of the same value as means ( sadhana ), yet, there is this important difference between .the two, that whereas Devotion can never become a Nistha, Knowledge can become a Nistha, that is, the highest stage in the State of Perfection (siddhavastha). It is true that one can get the same Knowledge of the Paramesvara. by means of Devotion, as by means of the Contemplation of the Absolute Self, or the Worship of the Imperceptible  ; but if, after having acquired this Knowledge,. the man gives up worldly life and remains steeped in the Knowledge, the Gita calls him a ' Jnana-nistha ' and not a ' Bhakti-nistha.' As the process of Devotion is based on the duality of the worshipper and the worshipped, no Devotion or any other kind of worship survives in the ultimate state of the merger of the Atman into Brahman. The ultimate resolu tion of Devotion is into Knowledge ; Devotion is a means for acquiring Knowledge, it is not a goal in itself. In short, Knowledge becomes a means, as meaning the worship of the Imperceptible ; whereas, it becomes a Nistha, that is, an ultimate state, as meaning the direct Realisation of the identity of the Brahman and the Atman ; and when it is necessary to make this difference clear, the two words ' Jnana- marga ' and ' Jnana-nistha ' are not used synonymously, but the word ' Jnana-marga ' is used to indicate the worship of the Imperceptible in its preparatory stages, and the word 'Jnana-nistha ' is used to indicate the State of Perfection (siddhavastha), which consists of giving up all Action after Acquisition of Knowledge, and becoming 'engrossed in Knowledge. That is to say, Jnana once becomes a 'means (Jnana-marga), in the sense of the Worship of the Imperceptible (avyaktopasana), or the Meditation on the Absolute Self (adhyatma-vicara) ; and it becomes a Nistha, that is to say, the ultimate state of Abandonment of Action, in the sense of a Direct Realisation (aparoksanubhava) ; and the same is the case with Karma.