BHAKTI AND JNANA THE SAME IN THE END

Bhakti and Jnana

Pure Knowledge and pure Love are both one and the same.

The same Being whom the Vadantins call Brahman, is called Atman by the Yogis and Bhagavan by the Bhaktas. The same Brahmin is called priest when he conducts worship, and cook when he is employed in the kitchen.

1 The Brahmin lady who initiated Sri Ramakrishna into the Tantrik Sadhanas.

What is Jnana (Knowledge) in the highest sense? Says the Jnani, " O Lord, Thou alone dost act in all this universe. I am but the smallest of tools in Thy hands. Nothing is mine. Everything is Thine. Myself, my family, my riches, my virtues—all are Thine.

A devotee: How can one know that one has attained Jnana, even while leading a family life ?

The Master: By tears and thrill of the hair at the name of Hari. When, at the very mention of the sweet name of the Lord, tears trickle down from a person s eyes and his hairs stand on end, truely he has attained Jnana.

Here is a Puranic story which reconciles Jnana and Bhakti. Once Ramachandra, God incarnate, said to his great devotee Hanuman, ' My son, tell Me in what relation you regard Me, and how you meditate upon Me. Hanuman replied: O Rama, at times I worship Thee as Puma, the undivided one. Then I look upon myself as an Amsa, a part, a fragment as it were, of that Divinity. At other times I meditate upon Thee, O Rama, as my Divine Master and think of myself only as Thy servant When, however, I am blessed, O Rama, with Tattva Jnana, or true Knowledge, I see, I realise that I am Thou and Thou art I."

If the scum on the surface of a tank is pushed aside a little, it spreads out again covering the water; but if it is well kept away with bamboo frames, it cannot come back any more. So if Maya is forced back merely once in a way, it comes again to trouble us; but when the heart is hedged in with Bhakti and Jnana, it is permanently kept away. Indeed, it is only thus that God becomes-manifest to human vision