Gita Rahasya -Tilak
CHAPTER IX
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF
"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' [1]; 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 [2]; 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 [3].
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