METHOD OF JNANA YOGA

If a man knows his own self, he knows other beings and God. What is my ego ? Is it my hand or foot, flesh or blood, muscles or tendons? Ponder deeply, and you will know that there is no such thing as I'. As you peel off the skin of an onion, you find it consists only of skin; you cannot find any kernel in it. So on analysing the ego, it will be found that there is no real entity that you can call ' I \ Such an analysis of the ego convinces one that the ultimate substance is God alone. When egotism drops away, Divinity manifests Itself.

So long as God seems to be outside and far away, there is ignorance. But when God is realised within, there is true Knowledge.

Pointing to the heart, the Master used to say: " He who has God here, has Him also there (pointing to the external world). He who does not find God within himself, well never find Him outside of himself. But he who sees Him in the temple of his own soul, sees Him also in the temple of the universe.'

A man woke up at midnight and desired to smoke. Therefore he wanted some fire, for which he went to a neighbour's house and knocked at the door. Someone opened the door and asked him what he wanted. The man said: "I wish to smoke. Can you give me a little fire ? " The neighbour replied: " Bah ! What is the matter with you ? You have taken so much trouble to come and awaken us at this hour, while in your own hand you have a lighted lantern!" What man wants is already within him ; but he still wanders here and there searching for it.

Reasoning is of two kinds—Anuloma and Viloma. By the Anuloma process man rises from the contemplation of the creation to the Creator, in other words, from the effect to the First Cause. Then the Viloma process of reasoning commences. Having attained God, man learns to see His manifestation in every part or act of creation. The one process is analytical and the other is synthetical The former is like the peeling off of the successive layers of the plantain trunk till one reaches the pith within. The latter is like lying these layers one over another.

Knowledge leads to unity : ignorance to diversity. 742. To a young disciple who was much pre-occupied with the study of books on Vedanta, the Master said one day; " Well, my boy, are you not nowadays deeply engaged in inquiring into the mysteries of Vedanta ? Very good. Brahman is real and the world is unreal—is this not the one teaching that forms the purport of all Vedantic studies ? Is it anything more than this ? " The young man admitted that that was the whole. The Master's words shed for him quite a new light on the truths of Vedanta. The words filled him with wonder. He thought that in fact if one could have a firm conviction of these truths, one would understand everything of Vedanta. The Master went on with his exposition : " Hearing, inquiry and meditation. That Brahman is real and the world is unreal is first to be heard. Then comes inquiry; for the truth of what is heard is firmly established by reasoning. The next step is meditation; that is, withdrawing the mind from the unreal world and concentrating it on Brahman, the Real. This is the order of Vedantic discipline. If, on the other hand, the Truth is heard and understood intellectually but no attempt is made to renounce the unreal, of what use is that knowledge ? Such knowledge is like that of the men of the world, and does not help one to attain the Truth. Firm conviction and renunciation—these are the necessary things. With these alone can one realise the Truth. Or else a person may profess in mere words that the world is unreal and non-existent, and that Brahman alone is existent; but the moment sense-objects—colour, taste and the rest—appear before him, he takes them to be real and gets entangled just like a man who verbally asserts that there are no thorns, but bursts out screaming as soon as his hand comes in contact with a thorn and gets pricked. Once a Sadhu came to Panchavati. He used to talk much Vedanta before others. One day I heard that he had illicit connection with a woman. After a while, when I went that side, I found him sitting there, and said, ' You talk so glibly about Vedanta ; but what is all this they talk about you ? ' What of that ? ' he replied, ' I shall show you that there is no harm in it. If the whole world is unreal at all times, how can my fall alone be real ? That also is equally unreal.' I said in utter disgust, ' I spit on such knowledge of Vedanta ! It is not real Knowledge but a mere sham, falsely professed by the worldly-minded, by wiseacres with gross worldly attachment.