Jnana Yoga

Goal, Pre-requisites, Process and

Culmination
 Goal of Jnana Yoga
• Freedom from sorrow
(shoka) and delusion
(moha)
• Complete fulfillment
• Unshakable sense of
security, happiness and
peace
• Tranquility when facing
success and failure in life
 Principle
• Anything finite and non-eternal cannot be completely
fulfilling.
• Anything that has a beginning should have an end.
Anything that comes will have to go.
• This implies that what is to be achieved is infinite and
eternal, and it is already here.
• It is only an ignorance of its presence that creates
unfulfillment.
• Knowledge (Jnana) is the only remedy for ignorance.
• So, Knowledge is the only means to complete fulfillment.
 Knowledge of What?

• Me

• World

• My relationship
with the World
 Pre-requisites
• Unbiased mind
(vishuddhaatmaa)
– Free from likes (raaga)
and dislikes (dvesha)
• Calm mind
(vijitaatma)
• Introverted mind
(jitendriyah)
 Preparations
• Karma Yoga – to get
an unbiased mind that
is free from likes and
dislikes
• Samaadhi Yoga – to
get a calm introverted
mind.
Also called Upaasana
Yoga or Patanjali’s
Ashtaanga Yoga.
 Process
• Hear or read about the
Truth (sravana)
• Think deeply about it and
clear all questions and
doubts about it (manana)
• Think about the
implications of it in
everyday life and
transform emotionally
(nididhyaasana)
What is the Truth?
What does it mean?
• Subject and object are
the same.
• There is only one
underlying entity that
is both me and the
world.
• Everything is me only.
 Who am I? …
• Let us understand
subject and object
characteristics and
relationships.
• Eye is the subject;
objects of vision are
objects; properties like
shape, size, color, etc
are of the object.
 Who am I? …
• The mind is the
subject; eye is the
object; properties like
healthy, blind, myopic,
color blind, etc are of
the object.
 Who am I? …
• I am the subject; mind
is the object;
properties like awake,
dreaming and asleep
are of the object.
• I am the one who
knows that I slept well
last night.
 Who am I? …
• I am the ultimate
subject.
• Discarding all that can
be objectified, what is
left is what I am.
• I can never be an
object. (aprameya)
 Who am I? …
• All properties belong to objects only.
• Subject can never have properties.
• I have no properties. (nirguna)
• That which does not have properties cannot be prone to any
change. (nirvikaara)
• That which does not change is eternal (nitya) and
omnipresent (sarvatra).
• That which does not change cannot do any action (akartaa)
nor can be affected by any action (abhoktaa).
 Who am I?
• I am the ultimate Subject.
• I have no properties.
• I am changeless.
• I am eternal.
• I am omnipresent.
• I am non-doer of any
action.
• I am unaffected by
anything.
 What is an Object? …
• An object is perceived by the
sense organs. It affects one or
more of the five senses.
(rupa)
• An object has a mental image
and a name associated with it.
(naama) Even a new object is
related to an already existing
mental image. Even an
abstract object which doesn’t
have rupa has a naama.
What is an Object? …
• Is there more to an
object apart from rupa
and naama?
• What is common
between even two
most dissimilar objects
– let us say a frog and
a mug?
 What is an Object? …
• We usually ignore the
obvious.
• They both EXIST
(asti).
• They both GET
KNOWN (bhaati).
• How they get known
depends on the senses
and mind.
What is an Object? …
• Looking beyond the
senses and the mind,
every object that we
can perceive or think-
of “EXISTS” and
“SHINES FORTH”
• The properties of the
object are merely the
“WAYS” as which it
shows itself as.
 What is an Object? …
• A pot has a “form” and a
“name”.
• But in reality, it is just
clay.
• Similarly, if the “form”
and “name” of an object is
ignored, the underlying
substratum is the “real”
object.
• The underlying “real”
object just “exists” and
“shines forth”.
 What is an Object?
• When we look beyond the properties, every object is the
same (ekam).
• It is without properties (nirguna).
• That which does not have properties cannot be prone to
any change. (nirvikaara)
• Changes are only to the properties of an object. Not to the
underlying “real” object itself.
• That which does not change is eternal (nitya) and
omnipresent (sarvatra).
• That which does not change cannot do any action (akartaa)
nor can be affected by any action (abhoktaa).
Subject and Object …
• Both the subject and
object have the same
qualities:
– Without properties
– Changeless
– Eternal
– Omnipresent
– Actionless
– Unaffected
 Subject and Object
• The only difference is
that one is object
(prameya) and the
other is subject
(aprameya).
• This is familiar.
• The object is only a
mirror image of the
subject.
This is the Truth
 Implications …
• There is only one “real”
changeless entity, which is
“I”, the subject.
• The world is just a mirror
image of the subject.
• All changes are to
properties only.
• I am never affected by the
properties of anything and
the changes to properties.
 Implications …
• I am infinite.
• I am eternal.
• It is the properties of
the objects in the
world that changes.
• I am just a witness.
• I am pure conscious
(chit) existence (sat)
full of bliss (aananda).
 Implications …
• I am ever fulfilled.
• I don’t lack anything.
• There is nothing that I
need to achieve.
• There is no place for
desire, greed, jealousy,
pride, anger, etc.
 Implications …
• I just keep watching the
play of the properties that
goes on in the world.
• I sportively play my role
without worrying too
much about success or
failure.
• It is just a game. Winning
or losing does not matter.
There is no need to cheat.
 Implications
• Everyone and everything
is “I” only.
• Everything is in me
and I am in
everything.
• Yet I am unaffected by
all this.
• In fact, “I” don’t play at
all. It is just a play of
properties.
 Jnana
• This is the Truth.
• This Truth alone can
give complete
fulfillment.
• This alone can give
freedom from sorrow.
• Knowing this Truth,
there is nothing more
to be known.