Now take gyan (knowledge). Can gyan make us realize God? What happens with gyan? What does gyan do?
When we attain gyan then the gyan removes agyan (ignorance). Knowledge removes ignorance. That’s it. Now the work of gyan is finished. Gyan is dead now, after giving knowledge. Knowledge of what? It gives the knowledge of the Self.
So far, we are ignorant because we do not even know who am I?
“I am the atma (soul),” but because of ignorance, we think we are the body. One who realizes the Self, one who attains knowledge, knows,
“I am atma.”
So he enjoys the bliss of atma, not the bliss of Paramatma (Supreme Soul). He enjoys the bliss of atma. This state is a very high state, and he attains a very high-class bliss. So much bliss is there that sometimes they misunderstand and think that I have realized God.
“This is the bliss of God!”
They think like that. Well, it is not the bliss of God. This state is called brahm-bhut avastha (the state of realization of Brahman).
ब्रह्मभूतः प्रसन्नात्मा न शोचति न काङ्क्षति।
समः सर्वेषु भूतेषु मद्भक्तिं लभते पराम्॥Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śhochati na kāṅkṣhati.
Samaḥ sarveṣhu bhūteṣhu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām.- Gita 18.54
The Gita is saying that at this state, because they know,
“I am atma.”
That’s why there is no desire. They know this world is not me. This world is not good for me. Anything cannot give me happiness. That’s why they don’t desire anything. They enjoy the bliss of the self, and they don’t look at this material world. And because now they know atma, they are seeing atma only. They are not seeing the different faces of the people. No, they are seeing atma, atma, atma. That’s why there is no question of any kind of distress in their life. No desire, no distress, and no happiness, because they don’t want anything; they have no desire. So they don’t get happy either in this world.
This is called ‘brahm-bhut avastha’, but they are still under the control of maya because, at this stage, they have overcome two-thirds of maya. Two-thirds of maya means they have gone above tamas gun (the mode of ignorance) and rajas gun (the mode of passion), but sattva gun (the mode of goodness) is still there.
सत्त्वात्सञ्जायते ज्ञानम्…।
Sattvāt sañjāyate gyānam…
- Gita 14.17 (partial)
This gyan is created by sattva gun. That is the gun of maya, so maya is still there.
So, to go beyond this also, to know Paramatma - he knows atma, but he does not know Paramatma. To know Paramatma, what will he do?
…मद्भक्तिं लभते पराम् ॥
…mad-bhaktim labhate parām’.
He has to do bhakti (devotion) only. Without bhakti, he cannot realize God.
So gyan is also not the complete path to realize God. It is not the authentic path to realize God.
