The Gita according to Gandhi 150

The Gita according to Gandhi -Mahadev Desai

The Four Varnas and Svadharma This distinction was never lost sight of in the Upanishads. The trouble is due to the unfortunate English word 'knowledge' which has not the content of jnana which far from meaning mere metaphysical knowledge means a new vision, a new life, a rebirth., The Greek, word gnosis as used by the Gnostics has that full content and means a full unification with the Universal Self, or as Prof. Nicholson points out a complete "realization of the, fact that the appearance of 'otherness' beside Oneness is a false and deluding dream. Gnosis lays the spectre which haunts unenlightened men all their lives, which rises like a wall of utter darkness between them and God." The" Upanishads make the meaning of jnana clear beyond any misunderstanding. But let us content ourselves with the Gita. If there is anything about which all the commentators' of the Gita are agreed for the simple reason that there is no room for misunderstanding it is the content arid the conditions of jnana. Is it possible to have more comprehensive definition of jnana than we have in XIII. 7-11 already noticed in detail in the foregoing analysis (Pp. 88-89)? It sums up elaborately the moral life that leads up to the vision, not temporary, but permanent of the Dweller in 'the innermost. It is the transformed life of the seer which is the subject of those nineteen verses in the second discourse (II. 54-72) and we have the substance of it repeated at ^very stage. The third discourse is concluded with the statement that the spiritual enemy of man has to' be killed by taking hold of the highest (III. 43).