|
Knowledge is of two kinds; ultimate and final or empirical and relative. Knowledge in it's ultimate reality is a state of being and never grows. It is already there and is revealed by the light of the atman, which transcends at once both the subject apprehending and the object apprehended, Beyond which there is nothing. True knowledge is purely an action of the soul and is perfect in itself and independent because of the senses and the sense organs. “An all – knowing mind,” says professor J.M. Murray, “ embraces the totality of being under the aspect of eternity . As we gain our entrance into the world of being , A total vision is ours.” According to Shankara, “highest knowledge is the immediate witness of reality itself,” for than, the knower and the known become one reality . But the real Self which is pure awareness cannot be the object of knowledge. The empirical knowledge of the external world is just like animal knowledge. It is based on and derived world is just like animal knowledge. It is based on and derived from the sense organs, and as such has forms and modes all of which are conspicuous by their absence from true knowledge. But nothing becomes real till it is experienced. Even a proverb is no proverb until it is illustrated in actual life and practice. All empirical knowledge is revealed either by perception or by scriptural testimony . The human perception has never been considered true, perfect and accurate . One may see a snake in a rope, or a ghost in the stump of a tree. Generally, things are not what they seem to be The colors of things we see are those that are not absorbed by them, but are rejected and thrown out. The redness of the rose is not part of the rose but something alien to it. Again, inference and scriptural testimony are not altogether infallible. The source of inference is previous experience, which is itself fallible and even if it were not, situations in the present may not wholly fit in with the knowledge gained in the past. This is the case even with intuition, which is the sum- total of all experience in the subconscious. A cloud of smoke on the top of a distant hill may be indicative of fire or it may be a sheet of fog. similarly, scriptural testimony , though admitted as an infallible and certain source of knowledge. Cannot always be treated as such . The vedas, which constitute the Divine knowledge, appear and disappear with the rise and dissolution of each cycle of time. They are supposed to be an inexhaustible mine of universal and ideal knowledge. But the term “knowledge” implies a record of spiritual experiences gained at the supersensory planes. The moment the experience thus gained are translated into human language and reduced to writing, they acquire form and method and the moment they acquire form and method , they lose their freshness and life, their quality of limitless being That which cannot be limited, or defined, being to be treated as something defined and limited, and instruct man from it by offering only abstractions. At best they can only point toward the Truth, but they can never give it . The concepts of the Universal as contained therein, remain as mere concepts, for they can neither be received, inferred nor correctly communicated; they begin to have meaning only when one learns to rise above the empirical plane and experiences Truth for himself. From the above, one come to the irresistible conclusion that “seeing,” or direct and immediate perception, is above all proof and testimony. It is seeing in the pure light of the atman, which is free from even the least shadow of correlativity. It is noting but a direct, integral experience of the soul. Sruti, or revealed scripture, without first- hand inner experience, is sound without sense. All flights of thought, imagination or fancy , and all empirical knowledge, and is knowledge of the Absolute . It is the self certifying experience of the soul, which bears testimony to the recorded spiritual experience of the sages as given in the srutis. |