Jnana, Vi-jnana and Pra(Param)-jnana
Jnana, Vi-jnana and Pra(Param)-jnana have
wide and multifarious meanings in the Hindu thoughts and especially in the
Vedanta philosophy. They just does not mean any kind of knowledge but a
systematic methodology and encompass a plethora of disciplines, be it in the realms
of art, science or philosophy. The aim and purpose of such knowledge are to
help the individual in attaining happiness and welfare in this world leading to
salvation. The goals of every Hindu, nay, any seeker revolves around the proper
understanding and perceiving the above concepts and implementing them
personally for a meaningful and purposeful living in this world and the world
hereafter.
This article examines the etymology of
the words jnana, vijnana and prajnana, their connotations and
denotations from the domains of grammar and Vedanta philosophy. Jnana stands
for knowledge, vijnana for the systematic study of a branch of
learning, science, intellectual awareness and consciousness. Prajnana stands
for profound knowledge, wisdom, ultimate reality or Brahman. These words are
inter-related and connote a higher meaning in the realm of spiritualism. This article
also attempts to compare these concepts from the standpoint of modern
scientific methodology and consciousness debates.
Grammatically the word jnana is derived from the
root of the Sanskrit verb "jna" which means to know, to
investigate and to recognize. When a suffix "ana" is added,
the word convey the meanings of knowing, knowledge, sacred knowledge,
consciousness, knowledge leading to liberation, etc.
When a preposition "vi0" is added to the
word jnana then it denotes the meanings such as knowledge,
worldly knowledge, wisdom, intelligence, discernment, understanding etc. The
sciences are called by the word vijnana in India as they
demand a methodological study of the subjects.
When a preposition "pra" is added to the word "jnana"
then it means intelligence, consciousness, a mark or a sign. When a prefix 'a'
is added to the word "jnana," then it denotes ignorance or
spiritually ignorant. If a word "su0" is added to "jnana,"
then it conveys the meaning of right knowledge. If a letter "aa"
is added to the word jnana, then it becomes "aajnanam," which means
knowledge in completeness. If a prefix "sam0" is added to the
word "jnana," then it means knowledge and understanding. The
Upanishads deal with all these words and the end goal of every spiritual seeker
is to realize himself and realize the ultimate reality or Brahman.
The awareness or jnana includes the process of
understanding the external world and the internal world or the reality.
According to the Upanishadic thinkers and Shankaracharya, jnana in
the final analysis is the knowledge of Brahman. Shankara says that one can get
liberation from knowledge only (Jnanadevatu kaivalyam).
The positive sciences of the Hindus are referred to by the word vijnana.
Vijnana is also called a shastra in Sanskrit. Any
branch of knowledge which teaches knowledge and awareness is called a treatise
(shastra) in Sanskrit. A shastra covers the broad areas
of right and wrong, sacred and profane, comprehensible and incomprehensible
things, the nature of the animate and animate objects. According to Hindu
tradition, shastra includes the four Vedas, lore (purana),
the six systems of Indian philosophy, grammar, texts dealing with dharma, ethics,
science and fine arts. It is defined as under:
- Pravruttirva nivruttirva nityena krutakena va I
- Pumsaam
yenopadishyeta tat shastramabhideeyate II
"That book is called shastra which teaches
the paths of pravritti (engagement in worldly affairs),
or nivrutti (renunciation) to the people."Amarakosha, a
Sanskrit lexicography by Amarsimha describes the word vijnana as
that branch of knowledge, which gives awareness regarding the world. The other
branches of knowledge are called shilpa (fine arts,
architecture, etc.). In the present cliché, all scientific and technological
knowledge can be termed as vijnana.
Krishna declares in the Bhagavadgita that people
should get most profound knowledge from experts in the field. He says that extreme desire (aasha),
greed (lobha) and lustful attitude (kama) of a person
destroy both knowledge and intellect. They eclipse the mind and intellect.
Hence one should control the sense organs and passion.
- Tasmatvam indriyanyadau niyamya bharatarshabha I
- Papmanam prajahi hyenam jnanavijnana nashanam II
"Therefore Oh! Bull of the Bharata race! Controlling
the senses at the outset, kill it, the sinful, the destroyer of knowledge and
realization."
According to Krishna, knowledge should be associated with realization leading
to the spiritual progress of a person (Jnana vijnana triptatma kutastho vijitendriyayaha
- BG VI-8).
According to Sanskrit texts, a person who is specialized in one or several
branches of knowledge is called a shastrajna or a vijnani. In
the modern parlance, both the shastrajna and a vijnani are
engaged in the pursuit of truth, either external or internal. Generally, a
scientist is engaged in discovering the truths in the external world of reality
or objective reality. In this process, the scientist had forgotten to examine
the subjective reality.
The brain which had evolved over a period of 150 million years in the path of
evolution and responsible for knowing the external world of reality had
forgotten or incapable of "knowing itself" according to
neuroscientists. However, owing to the tremendous advancements in the field of
neurosciences, now the brain is in a position to understand itself. The researches in the quantum physics
and new physics are in the process of reducing the thin line of difference
between wave or particle, mind, and matter. David Joseph Bohm and other
scientists have combined the words wave and particle and have christened it
as wavicle.
The traditional Hindu philosophers have declared long ago that the
consciousness is not visible as it is a subjective reality. One has to resort
to meditation and introspection (antardarshana) for realizing that
subjective reality.
This aspect is described in the Taittiriyopanishad in an
enchanting way thus. The sages explain that the body is made up of five sheaths
or layers. They are: Sheath of food (annamaya) psychic energy (pranamaya),
mind (manomaya), intelligence vijnanamaya) and bliss (anandamaya).
A spiritual seeker should progress from one sheath to the other slowly and
steadily. They can be compared to various planes of existence or consciousness.
Primarily a person has to satisfy his basic necessities of life and at this
level comes the annamaya or materialism. The zeal and zest
toward life, feverish activity for attaining the desired goals are covered
under pranamaya or vitalism. The mind plays an active role in
all the mundane world of activities and here comes the level of manomaya or
mentalism. Having satisfied basic and emotional necessities, man craves for
intellectual awareness. He satisfies his curiosity by participating in
intellectual and philosophical deliberations and reaches the level of vijnanamaya or
intellectualism. Only a few people rise further and realize the ultimate
reality by consistent practice (abhyasa) and renunciation (vairagya).
They reach transcendentalism or anandamaya and attain the state of bliss (ananda).
The experience of the five sheaths is like that of entering a big palace or the
search of a topic in the internet. When you stand before a palace, you will be
wonderstruck by its outward appearance. As you open the doors, you step in to a
path way or a corridor leading to many suits. Each suit will have its own
glamour and allures you and gives a new aesthetic experience. In the same way,
when you start searching for an item in the internet, you will be led to
various sites and if you are not cautious, you will lose track and be lost in
the world of information and frustration.
Likewise people may be allured into the pleasures of the mundane world and end
up satisfying sensate desires. Some may lead a life of feverish activity and
rarely find time to turn inward. Some may lead an emotional life all through.
Some may be happy in sharpening their intellectual skills and participate in
intellectual and philosophical debates. Only a few people turn inward and by
constant contemplation, realize themselves or the supreme Godhead.
The five sheaths can be compared with the five gross elements (pancha mahabhutas)
namely, earth (pritvi), water (apaha), air (vayu),
fire (tejas), and space or ether (akasha). These five gross
elements have five subtle parts which exist in sub-atomic states (rasa tanmatras)
namely, smell (gandha), taste (rasa), form (rupa), touch (sparsha)
and sound (shabda). The corresponding sense organs are nose, tongue,
skin eyes, and ears. But Brahman is above the sensorial and
supra-sensorial experiences. The Taittiriyopanishad says that
the speech returns along with the mind unable to reach him, whose nature is
unalloyed bliss.
The word vijnana means consciousness according to Vedanta. It
also means supra-consciousness. Brahman is that vijnana.
In a broad way, the three concepts of Vedanta namely, Atman (individual
soul), Brahman (universal soul) and vijnana (consciousness)
are one and the same. For example, the Mundaka and Chandogya Upanishads declare:
"All this is Brahman," "There is no diversity here.
He who perceives diversity here goes from death to death."
"Thus, to say all this is Brahman or amounts to saying
that all this is vijnana. In other words, all this is vivarta (illusory
manifestation) or parinama (transformation) of Brahman
or Vijnana."
Brahma Consciousness
Brahman is also called prajnana. He is a mark or sign
for consciousness. Any person endowed with this consciousness is called prajnana ghana.
The Upanishads say that one should not only know and understand Brahman but
also experience Brahman.
Then he verily becomes Brahman himself (Brahmavid brahmaiva bhavati).
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa gives a fine illustration in this regard:
"When, having attained the nondual Brahman in samadhi,
one comes back to the plane of the ego, one realizes that it is Brahman who has
become the universe of plurality." To get to the flesh of the fruit you
discard its skin and seeds. But when you want to know the total weight of the
fruit, you must weigh them all together. The skin, the seeds, the flesh-all
belong to one and the same fruit. Similarly, having realized the unchangeable
reality-the one absolute, existence-one finds that he who is the absolute,
formless, impersonal, infinite God is again one with the relative universe. He
who is absolute in one aspect is relative in another aspect, and both aspects
belong to one and the same substance. Every subject whether in the domains of
science or arts, deals with knowledge (jnana), knower (jnatru)
and known (jneya). It is called the three-fold aspect of knowledge. A
spiritual seeker (jnatru) should get knowledge (jnana) of
the Brahman and it should be known (jneya). Even in
experimental sciences, there is a process of experiment, observation, inference
and conclusion.
Body, Mind and Consciousness
From the modern standpoint, annamaya kosha is
our body or the matter, whereas our thoughts, emotions and feelings are manomaya sheath
and consciousness is vijnanamaya. Although according to Vedanta,
consciousness has an independent existence, modern sciences are yet to agree
with this formidable issue or the problem.
Of late, the new physicists such as Fritjof Capra, Bell, Frank
Allen Wolf, Rupert Sheldrake, Paul Davis and mathematician Roger Penrose are
raising questions about the over-emphasis on matter and speculating about the
possible existence of consciousness.
The striking differences between matter and mind upheld by the
votaries of science, all along the history and triumphant march of science
slowly dissipated and crumbled with the exploration of quantum physics. Now the
smallest sub-nuclear particle known as Resonance is described, more as a
happening and an event rather than a particle. According to Fritjof
Capra questions regarding the ultimate building blocks of matter remains
unanswered.
Today the matter is on the crossroads in the new light of quantum physics and
new physics. These elementary particles can be interpreted as waves or
particles. The scientists have grappled with this formidable problem of
deciding whether light was just a stream of discrete minutest particles called
photons or nothing but a continuous wave function. It was a gnawing problem as
the experimental evidence indicated that in some situations light behaved as if
it was made up of particles, while some cases it behaved as if it was a wave
function. As both aspects of this scientific dichotomy had validity, scientists
decided to define the phenomenon of light as a "wavicle" which meant
that light was comprised of two contrary aspects, namely waves and particles. According
to Bell, the real particles exist, but they follow strange orders. Physicist Fred Alan Wolf calls such activities of particles
as psychic phenomenai. The new
physicists such as Michael Talbot, Rupert Sheldrake, Fritjof Capra and others
are advocating "inter-actionism," which emphasize that "mind or
ego, soul, psyche, spirit or conscious self somehow interacts with the body or
matter through brain." [12] Hence, there is a paradigm shift from
the Newtonian division of matter and mind to the inseparable interconnectedness
between matter and consciousness perhaps leading to a singularity instead of
duality or plurality in the world of modern science. Swami Vivekananda had
remarked in the World Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893 as under:
"Thus it is through multiplicity and duality that the ultimate unity is
reached. Religion can go no further. This is the goal of all
science."
Dr. Paul Davis, Professor of Mathematics in the University of Adelaide,
Australia, while writing a series of articles in the daily Statesman on
the topic of Nature and Mystery of consciousness concludes that
"consciousness is a fundamental feature of the universe, connected in a
deep and still mysterious way to the laws of Nature."
Dr. Roger Penrose, Rouse Ball Professor, an English mathematical
physicist, and philosopher of science at University of Oxford and a friend of
Stephen. W. Hawking while discussing the phenomenon of consciousness, in the
context of researches in Artificial intelligence, "Turing" computer
machines, computability and nature of physical reality says thus:
"Consciousness seems to me to be such an important phenomenon
that I simply cannot believe that it is something just accidentally conjured up
by a complicated computation. It is the phenomenon whereby the universe,
governed by laws that do not allow consciousness, is no universe at all. I
would even say that all the mathematical descriptions of the universe that have
been given so far must fail this criterion. It is only the phenomenon of
consciousness that can conjure up a putative theoretical universe into actual
existence."
In the end he raises the following
questions:
What happens to each of our streams of consciousness after we die?
Where was it before each was born? Might we become or have been someone else?
Why do we perceive at all? Why are we here, Why is there a universe at all in
which we can actually be? These are puzzles that tend to come with the
awakenings of awareness in any one of us and no doubt with the awakening of
genuine self-awareness within whichever creature or other entity, it first came
and suggests that for an answer to such questions, a theory of consciousness
would be needed. However, how would one have begun to explain "the
substance of such problems to an entity that was not itself
conscious!?"
The Vivekachudamani of Shankaracharya (vs.
125-133) summarizes the concept of consciousness such as three states of
consciousness namely waking (jagrat), dream (svapnam) and deep sleep
stage (sushupti), combination of subjectivity and objectivity termed as
"omnijective" by Michale Talbot, consciousness beyond space-time
continuum and many more.
A recipient of several international awards, Roger Sperry opines that
"this shift from a causal determinacy that is purely physical to one that
includes conscious, subjective forces that supersedes the physical, makes all
the differences when it comes to using the "truths" of sciences as
criteria of ethical values."
Prajnana Mission (USA) is an organization for
charitable, religious, educational and scientific purposes.
The purpose of organization is to promote integrated physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual growth through yoga, meditation, study, discussion and prayer. The purpose shall include but not be limited to organizing regional centers dedicated to the teaching of the principles of Prajna (wisdom), conducting meditation meetings, workshops and retreats, to promote study and research on the basic principles described in various scriptures from different religions and cultures, publish and lecture the research findings and interpretations for the benefit of all universally, promote the practice of individual’s own spiritual beliefs and convictions and promoting cultural exchanges with other institutions – national and international.
We find that jnana, vijnana and prajnana play a great role for the seekers in understanding the physical world, the ultimate reality who is beyond name and form, who is beyond space-time continuum and who is an omnijective reality.
