Thursday - August 30, 2007

The Supreme Knowledge

A Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita

“Since you accept me and do not question, now I shall tell you that innermost secret: knowledge of God which is nearer than knowing, open vision direct and instant. Understand this and be free for ever from birth and dying with all their evil.” (Bhagavad Gita 9:1)

What thrilling words! Yet they are purely wisdom, free from exaggeration or emotionality. Prabhavananda’s translation is very interpretive–though totally correct. Here is a more literal translation by Winthrop Sargeant:

“This most secret thing I shall declare to you, who do not disbelieve: knowledge and realization combined, having learned which you shall be released from evil.”

The qualities of this great knowledge should be scrutinized by us who seek for it.

Most secret

Krishna calls this knowledge, not just secret (guhya), but most secret (guhyatamam). It is knowledge hidden from all but the knowers of Brahman, yet it can be spoken about to those who are approaching that knowledge. Essentially, Krishna is going to give us the knowledge that inevitably leads to that supreme knowledge. It is most secret because it is utterly incomprehensible–hidden–to a consciousness that is not awakened and already purified to a marked degree. For regarding those not awakened and not purified it can justly be said: “they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” (Matthew 13:13)

Disbelief

Fake religions–and fake gurus–demand “faith” in the sense of unquestioning acceptance of doctrines and dogmas. Or they require a person’s being “convinced” by accepting their intellectual arguments. Krishna is nowhere near this kind of fakery! When he says “disbelieve” he is using the word anasuyave, which means to be free of contradiction or contention in the sense of willful contrariness, what in the American south is meant by the word “cussedness.” Krishna is not blaming a sincere unacceptance of something, but rather a perversity and negativity of mind that causes a person to intentionally reject truth. It is a symptom of conscious evil, and a lot of people have it. That is why Saint Paul urged: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:12) This is not a matter of simple non-belief, as I have said. There is no wrong in not believing something, even if it comes from a limited understanding. It is the refusal to believe that is... (read more of "The Supreme Knowledge")