Gita Rahasya -Tilak 231

Gita Rahasya -Tilak

CHAPTER IX THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF Take History, Geology, Electricity, Chemistry, Physics or any other science ; all the exposition to be found in it is only of Names and Forms, that is to say, only of how a particular substance loses one Name and Form and acquires another Name and Form. For instance, these sciences only consider how and when that which is known as 'water' acquires the name of 'steam', or how various aniline dyes, having the red, green, blue, or various other colours, which are only differences of Name and Form, are formed from one black substance called coal-tar, etc Therefore, by studying these sciences which are engrossed in Names and Forms, one cannot acquire the knowledge of the Real Substance, which is beyond Names and Forms; and it is clear that he who wishes to find the form of the Real Brahman must extend his vision beyond these Material sciences, that is to say, beyond these sciences which deal only with Names and Forms. And the same meaning is conveyed by the story at the commence- ment of the seventh chapter of the Chandogyopanisad. In the beginning of the story, Narada went to Sanatkumara, that is, to Skanda, and said : "Give me knowledge of the Atman". In reply, Sanatkumara said to him: "Tell me what you have learnt, so that I will tell you what comes next ". Narada said: "I have learnt all the Vedas, namely, the Eg. and the other Vedas, in all four, as also History and Puranas (which is the fifth Veda), and also Grammar, Mathematics, Logic, Fine Arts, Ethics, subsidiary parts of the Vedas (vedanga), Morality, Black Magic, Warfare (ksatra-vidya), Astrology, the science of .Serpents, Deities etc.; but I have not thereby acquired the knowledge of the Atman, and I have, therefore, come to you ". .In reply to that, Sanatkumara said : "All that you have learnt deals only with Names and Forms and the true Brahman is far beyond this Nama-Brahma (the Brahman qualified by Names)"; and he has afterwards gradually described to Narada the Immortal Element in the form of the Absolute Spirit, which is beyond Names and Forms, that is to say, beyond the Samkhya imperceptible Prakrti, as also beyond Speech, Hope, Project, Mind, Reason (jnana) and Uie(prana), and is superior to all of them. All that has baen said before may be summarised by saying that though the human organs cannot actually perceive or know anything except Names and Forms, yet, there must be some invisible, that is, imperceptible, eternal substance which is covered by this cloak of non-permanent Names and Forms ; and that, it is on that account that we get a synthetic knowledge of the world. Whatever knowledge is acquired, is acquired by the Atman; and therefore, the Atman is called the 'Jnata' (Knower). Whatever knowledge is acquired by this Knower, is of the Cosmos defined by Name and Form; and, therefore, this external Cosmos defined by Name and Form is called 'Jnana' ; and the Thing-in-it- self (vastu-tattva) which is at the root of this Name-d and Form-ed (namarupatmaka) Cosmos is called the ' Jneya '. Accepting this classification, the Bhagavadgita says that the ‘ksetrajna’- atma ' is the Jnata and the eternal Parabrahman, uncognisable by the organs is the Jneya ; and dividing Jnana (Knowledge) subsequently into three parts, the Know- ledge of the world arising on account of diversity or mani- foldness, is called rajasa knowledge, and the synthetic knowledge ultimately obtained from this diversity is called sattvika knowledge .