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Pure Knowledge is not an act, for it is not independent of that
which is to be known. Even shravana, manana and
nididhyasana are not actions in the true sense, for they
presuppose the knowledge of that which is their aim.
Ascertainment of the nature of Reality is itself the beginning
of the process of Truth-realisation. Intellect and intuition are
not antagonistic but differ only in the degree and the nature
of their comprehension of Truth. The direct knowledge of
Reality is the zenith of the experience which has its starting
point in the shining of the higher purified intellect. It does
not, however, mean that intellectual appreciation of Reality is
the goal of philosophy, for the search after Truth does not
end here. But it cannot be denied that our perception of
Reality has, somehow, a direct bearing on how far we
succeed in shaking ourselves free from the conviction that
the world of appearance is real. Intellect is lifted up and not
nullified in intuition. Viveka is not the intuitional Truth but
an intellectual discrimination, and yet, it is this clarified
perception that paves the way to the highest experience in
intuition. Viveka gets merged in jnana. The intellectual
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knowledge of Reality is the fundamental requisite for the
dissolution of thought in the intuitional wisdom of Truth.
Even the mere decisive intelligent grasping of the nature of
Truth changes the spirit of man s life, and his feelings grow
deeper, wider and subtler every moment. Intellect is the
gateway to intuition. Reason is necessary to justify faith in
Truth. Metaphysical acumen is the foundation on which is
built the edifice of transcendental Experience of the Absolute.
The true philosopher is not a creature of his intellect, but a
sage in the making. His method may be classified under three
heads in the order of succession, the fourth state being the
ultimate realisation itself:
1. Integral Understanding of the Nature of Reality;
2. Repeated assertion of the Integral Understanding;
3. Progressive dissolution of the Integral Thought in
Integral Consciousness;
4. Absolute Experience which transcends all relations.
These stages correspond to shravana, manana,
nididhyasana and sakshatkara in the terminology of the
Vedanta. Each succeeding stage here is the effect of the
deepening and the expanding of the preceding stage. Even
the integral thought or the infinite psychosis (brahmakara-
vritti) of the third stage is only a  stage , a  step which
destroys all ignorance and finally destroys itself, too, in That
which is beyond being and non-being, beyond knowledge
and ignorance, beyond joy and sorrow, beyond substance,
quality and relation, beyond space, time, cause, effect;
beyond everything.
 He, who has become the Pure Light by the Peace of
Knowledge attained through the affirmation of the
Attributeless Being, beholds it.
 Mun. Up., III. 1. 8.
Knowledge of Brahman is not an act, and Brahman is not
a result of an action or an effect produced through a change
in the being of the one who knows it. The rope that is
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perceived on the sublation of the ignorance conjuring up the
false snake is not the production of any act but is merely the
unaffected existence which was such even prior to the
negation of the ignorance which appeared in relation to it.
The knowledge of Brahman is independent of human
endeavour, and so, it cannot be connected with any act which
is by nature relative and is always what is known, an external
to knowledge, and is never the same as or related to
Consciousness which is by nature trans- empirical and
unmodifiable. Nor is Brahman related to an act as the object
of the act of knowledge, for knowledge is not an action.
Knowledge is being. If knowledge is to become an act, then,
who is to know this act of knowledge? The attempt to know
such a knower would only land one in an infinite regress
from which extrication is not possible. Knowledge of
Brahman is being Brahman, and this is moksha or Liberation.
Moksha is not what is produced, for it is eternal. The
realisation of Brahman is the realisation of the Atman or the
Inner Self, and since no action can be a help in knowing
oneself, moksha or Self-realisation is not the result of any
action. Action or movement has a meaning when what is to
be reached or effected is outside in space, but is ineffective
when what is to be reached is the reacher himself, who is not
something which is situated in space or changing in time, i.e.,
when Consciousness is what is reached and also the reacher.
The knower cannot be known through an act of knowledge,
and there is no such thing as a knower of a knower or a
knower of knowledge. Individualistic knowledge is a mental
act, but the Absolute-Knowledge which is Being itself cannot
be an act. In knowing an external thing knowledge appears as
a mental or an intellectual process, but Brahman is not
anything external, and so it cannot be known through any
process or act. Knowledge which knows Brahman is [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]