After the battle of Kurukshetra, Arjuna once asked Sri Krishna to explain to him the nature of Self-Knowledge.
There are several kinds of knowledge but none is equal to Self-Knowledge. Who is there in the world who can teach true knowledge? There may be one here and there, but how is one to find him ?
When a devotee (of Mine) who has developed dispassion and is anxious to acquire the supreme knowledge, goes about quietly, he will one day surely come across a Guru who has attained Liberation. He is truly the Lord (Ishwara). Those who are ignorant like children cannot recognize his greatness.
Can the creature living in water realize the nectar within the blossoming lotus? Only a realized man (jnani) can recognize another realized man.
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| Hoysaleswara Temple Outer Wall Covering Sri Krishna |
On meeting such a Guru one should approach him humbly and live with him, serving him faithfully. In due course the Guru will be pleased with his faith and devotion and will impart to him the truth (Knowledge) which will enable him to transcend birth, and death. He (the disciple) will then become one with the Supreme Self. What more is there to say? I have already told you about these things at the beginning of the Kurukshetra battle when you were overcome by delusion. Has what I told you, sitting in the chariot, become useless like a line drawn on water? But never mind. I am still alive and shall explain to you again the nature of the Supreme Self. No one ever thinks that he has heard enough about Self Knowledge, which is not really knowledge in the ordinary sense.
One should, first of all, get rid of the notions 'I' and 'mine'. People are extremely deluded by the notions of 'mine' and 'yours.’ One should also become indifferent to the pairs of opposites like heat and cold, joy and sorrow. The Self is not the elements earth, water, fire, air and ether. Nor is it the sense of smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing, or the organs, hands, legs, the tongue and the organs of evacuation and generation, or the activities of giving, going, coming, emitting and relieving. Nor is it the mind, the intellect, the ego or the thinking faculty (chitta). It is not the vital airs (prana) which are its objects of cognition. Nor is it the jiva (the finite individual self). The Self knows everything. It is the bright lightning-like witness of everything. Nothing adheres to it, but it accompanies everything. It animates everything. It is luminous and permeates the world like water which is inside and outside a pot immersed in it. It is the Supreme Brahman. It is the sole and highest reality. It is without any form and knows no decay. It can be known only by worshipping the feet of the Guru who is the Supreme Lord. Wife, sons, friends, riches and the body will then be realized to be impermanent and unreal.The Self and the Guru will be realized to be identical, the true and eternal Absolute. One will realize that there is nothing else.