Bhagavagd Gita - Session 26- Track 2601

Let us revise a little so that we once again enter into the field.

We have said that the Bhagavad Gita has three main divisions: chapter 1 to chapter 6 is one division; chapter 7 to chapter 12, and chapter 13 to chapter 18. In the first 6 chapters, we have the synthesis of Karma and Jnana. In chapter 7 to 12 there is the synthesis of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti. Chapter 13 to chapter 18 takes us to deeper understanding of this triple Yoga, the climax of it. In chapter 7 to chapter n°12 there is a great emphasis upon knowledge; there is the synthesis of knowledge and Bhakti but there is a tremendous emphasis upon knowledge and this knowledge is not merely intellectual knowledge, but spiritual knowledge.

There is a difference between intellectual knowledge and spiritual knowledge: intellectual knowledge gives you information about phenomena, about events, about developments, about things. Spiritual knowledge gives you information, but about “being”, not phenomena but about “being”, of phenomena also but as manifestations of the being. Whenever we talk of spiritual knowledge, this element of the knowledge of being is at the base. Now, chapter 7 to 12 therefore, is fundamentally you might say information about being, and also about ‘becoming’ which issues from ‘being’. Now, the word information is also not a very correct word. Information is normally, regarding something that is not ‘yourself’. When it concerns yourself, you don’t have ‘information’, but you have ‘identity’ with it. Your knowledge is by experience and by identity. In the act of information we are revealed about things and events, about becomings so that we become aware of many things which are happening around us by the help of which we become more efficient in dealing with things.

In regard with the ‘spiritual knowledge’, we ‘grow into being’; it is not a question of being informed about being but we grow into being; that which we are, we become more, we become intenser, we become more possessed, we experience it in greater depths, greater widths, profoundity, greater height. From the point of view of statement of spiritual knowledge, it can be stated within a short formula: for example one of the greatest statements of Knowledge in the Upanishad is:

tat tvam asi (Chand. Upn. VI, 8,7) “Thou art That”.

Now from the point of view of information it is a very short sentence: “Thou art That”. It only informs you that what you think to be yourself is really ‘That’ and by ‘That’ is meant ‘all that is universal’, and ‘all that goes beyond universe’. So, “you are one with the universal and the transcendental”. Now, even here, the word ‘universal’ is a short word, ‘transcendental is also a short word. Perhaps if you want to describe gold, which is a ‘becoming’ not a ‘being’, but gold is a becoming: it’s an event, it’s a thing, it’s a phenomenon. You can write 5 or 6 pages about gold: where it comes from, what is the quality, what are its attributes, how it is sold, where it is available etc., a lot of things can be written. But about “Thou art That”, you can’t write much; it is not a matter to be written about. It is something about which one grows; one grows into one’s own being and when you possess the whole universal in you, you are not required to describe the whole universe. The universe can be possessed by you, by a mere act of identity with the whole universe. You don’t even need to universalise yourself step by step, saying: “I universalise myself first embracing this much, then I embrace little more, then I embrace more”, it is not even that kind of movement. When you really become ‘imbued with your Self’, when you really ‘touch your inner being’, you find your Self to be universal. It is at once universal; it doesn’t grow little by little, except in a very initial stage. And when you know transcendental, it goes even beyond this.