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by Swami Krishnananda
The knower of Brahman is consciousness as such. It is difficult to define what we mean by a knowledge of Brahman. In common parlance we identify a knower of Brahman with a human being who has knowledge like a professor. A physics or chemistry professor is a human being who has a great learning in that subject. He is a learned man, yet he is still a human being. Likewise, we are likely to connect the appendage of knowledge as an accessory to the personality of the individual whom you call the knower of Brahman. The Upaniṣhads do not connote the meaning of the knower of Brahman in this sense. He is not a knower 'of' Brahman. Language does not permit us to put this truth in any other better manner but the fact is, it is not 'of' something. 'Brahma-vid brahma eva bhavati', is what another Upaniṣhad tells us. The knower of Brahman does not know Brahman as I know you or you know me, or X knows Y, etc. It is not an 'of' of something. The 'of' is a redundant particle that appears in the sentence. It is a consciousness that becomes suddenly aware of its own being; that is all. This is called knowledge of Brahman. So a Brāhmaṇa is a person, if you want to call him a person, becoming conscious of himself as a universal existence. Such a being who is not a human being, not even a person, is the supreme apex of impersonality, is the knower of Brahman. It is Brahman alone that knows Brahman. It is not I or you that know Brahman. It is God that knows God, not anyone else. So, in that case, of course, the question of Karma does not arise, much less the question of evil, good, bad, etc. So, the knower of Brahman, who has identified himself with the Cosmic Essence, who is called a Brāhmaṇa in the language of the Upaniṣhad, neither increases by good actions nor decreases by bad actions. If a beautiful fragrant breeze blows on your nose, the wind is not going to be credited for that. If a stink comes from the air, the latter is not going to be discredited for that, because it is not connected with any personal motive and it is not a person at all.
The relativity of things comes into relief when we consider the interconnectedness of all things, so that the placement of a particular value in its own context is what will enable us to know the truth of that particular thing. We always misjudge things on account of placing a thing in the wrong place. Where the nut is to be, there the nut has to be; it cannot be in the dining room. Where the belt is, there the belt has to be. You cannot hang it somewhere else, on your neck for example. It is hard for the individual knower to place things in their proper context because of this evil self-assertion. There is always a preconceived notion that 'I know everything' and everything should pass through the rut and the crucible of 'my' understanding. If this egoism vanishes and if we are good enough to accede and concede as much value to others as we are attributing to our own selves, considering others also equally subjects of knowledge as we ourselves are, then we would be giving due respect to people. The highest respect that you can pay to a person is to regard him as a subject and not an object of understanding and judgment. You are nobody to judge anybody, because you immediately convert a person into an object the moment you judge. It is a very ridiculous attitude that you adopt in respect of other people, because the reverse can take place and you may be judged in the same way as an object. When you consider everyone as an object, you are in Samsāra. That is called bondage. Everyone is an object. I am an object for you and you are an object for me. So, everyone is an object only. The whole world is filled with objects. The consideration of the whole world as a conglomeration of objects merely, and nothing more than objects, is called Samsāra, or bondage. But you can shift your emphasis to the subjectness of beings. Why should I regard myself as an object of you? Am I not a subject by myself, so also you? So, if everyone is a subject, there is only subjectivity everywhere. Look at the wonder. The moment you shift your emphasis of consideration, the very world of objects has become a world of subjects. That is called Mokṣha. So, in one and the same place there is bondage and liberation at one stroke, and in the same person you can see both object and subject, both friend and foe. Viewed as an object he is an enemy, and viewed as a subject he is a friend. This is the great point of view taken by the knower of Brahman. In his case no Karma arises, either good or bad, because these appellations are inappropriate in that supreme condition of a person – eṣa nityo mahimᾱ brᾱhmaṇasya na vardhate karmaṇᾱ no kanīyᾱn – as he only sees subjects and no objects.
Tasyaiva syᾱt pada-vit, taṁ viditvᾱ na lipyate karmaṇᾱ pᾱpakena: 'Evil is unknown to him.' Just as there is no shadow in the sun, there cannot be sin or evil in God, and also in anyone who is God-conscious. One who has simply awakened himself to this knowledge becomes the being of knowledge itself. Hence, the question of Karma, evil, etc., does not arise there.
Iti tasmᾱd evaṁ-vit, śᾱnto dᾱnta uparatas titikṣuḥ samᾱhito bhῡtvᾱ, atmany evᾱtmᾱnam paśyati: 'Such a person automatically becomes self-restrained.' We ordinary ones have to struggle hard to be virtuous, and have to put forth great effort to see that we are not committing any error. Virtue becomes a Sādhana or a means of purification for us. But in the case of a knower it becomes an effulgence emanating from his body. You cannot say that the light of the sun is an effort put forth by the sun. It is a spontaneous emanation. So, what is an effort, an enforced practice of virtue on the part of an initiate or a beginner, is the spontaneous nature of the knower of the Absolute. 'Such a person is tranquil' at all times because of the unruffled condition of consciousness being free from Rajas and Tamas-Shānta. 'Automatically the senses converge into the mind and the intellect' and the Supreme Mahat, a Dānta. Uparata – is 'free from all distractive activity which is directed usually for ulterior motive'. Titikṣuh – is 'able to bear anything' because he has no good or bad, right or wrong. Everything becomes correlated to each other, and therefore, he has nothing to say, either positively or negatively, in respect of anything. He neither says, 'Yes! He is good', nor does he say, 'No! He is bad'. Neither of these statements will come from his mouth because he is Sāmahita – 'He is one-pointed, concentrated in the essence of Being.' And, what does he visualise? 'He sees himself in himself', nothing else. He does not see people; he does not see the world; he sees himself in himself. Now, does it mean that he sees only the personal self? This misconception may arise in the mind of an untutored student of the Upaniṣhad. Atmany evᾱtmᾱnam paśyati: Does it mean that he is an introvert in the psychoanalytical sense, closing his eyes and looking upon himself and enjoying his own personality, engrossed in his physical body? Is this the meaning of knowing oneself and beholding one's own self in one's own self? No! It is corrected by the subsequent statement – sarvam ᾱtmᾱnam paśyati. 'He sees the Self in everything', not looking at himself only as the Self but looking at everything as the Self. This is what I mentioned already as the subjectivity of the universe being revealed to the consciousness of the person who has known Brahman – sarvam ᾱtmᾱnam paśyati.
Nainam pᾱpmᾱ tapati: 'No evil can cross over him' because it does not really exist. How can it then touch him? How can the shadow touch the sun who is so bright and hot? Sarvam papmanam tarati: 'He crosses over all that you call evil and untrue in the world.' Nainam pᾱpmᾱ tapati: 'No evil can burn him.' Sarvam pᾱpmᾱnaṁ tapati: 'He burns all sins.' Vipāpo – 'Free from evil of every consideration.' Virajo – 'Free from distraction of every kind.' Vicikitso – 'Free from doubt of every kind.' Brᾱhmaṇo bhavati – 'He becomes the knower of the Absolute, the Supreme Knower of Brahman.'
Eṣa brahma-lokaḥ, samrᾱt: "Janaka! This is the goal that you have to reach," says Sage Yājñavalkya. This is Brahma-loka, the world of Brahma. It does not mean some distant world of Brahma; it means the world itself is Brahma. The universal itself is the Absolute. "This realisation is the goal of your life, O Emperor Janaka. This is the final message for you," instructs Sage Yājñavalkya. You can imagine the joy of the disciple, the glorious student. He was just overwhelmed at having received this knowledge of the consummation of being. Samrāt enam prāpitō'si: "I have taken you to this goal and I have done my duty," says the Guru to the disciple – Iti hovᾱca yajñavalkyaḥ. So'ham bhagavate videhᾱn dadᾱmi: Previously he (Janaka) used to say, "I give you a thousand cows." Now he says, "I give you the whole kingdom and I am here as your servant. Use me as you like." Videhān dadāmi, māṁ cāpi saha dāsyāyeti: What else can he offer? "The whole kingdom is at your feet, Master, and I am at your service as your servant. Now nothing else can be offered to you in return for this great wisdom that you have imparted to me."
'This great Ātman is immortal.' 'This Ātman' refers to the great Ātman, not your individual localised bodily Ātman. We are not referring to the Jīvātman. It is not the you or the I that we are speaking of. It is the Selfhood of the entire creation we talk of. That great Being, Mahatatva, the Supreme Being, Cosmic Intelligence – that is the real Ātman that we are speaking of. 'It is the eater of everything' – annādah. 'It is the consumer of all objects.' Every object is connected with it as inseparable from its own Being. It is not like a son connected with a father, or a subordinate connected with a boss, or a servant connected with a master. It is not such a loose connection of object with subject. It is an inseparable organic oneness of 'Being as such'. Such is the unity of subject and object in that great Ātman. As the objects are inseparably involved in the Being of the Subject, it is supposed to be the great consumer of all things. Vasu-dᾱnaḥ: 'It is the Being which dispenses the highest justice and commands the due reward of actions to follow in accordance with their own intensity and direction.'
'Whoever knows this Truth also becomes like that.' Vindate vasu ya evam veda: You will also be a Master of this kind; you will be as great as this Mahat Ātman; you will be an enjoyer of all things; you will not be a poverty-stricken beggar or a hermit wandering from place to place in search of God, once you know this. You have already found Him. Why do you wander like a hermit anymore? You are as great as He and your glory is as great as His glory. Vasu ya evaṁ veda: 'One who knows' knows in the real sense of the term. Here in the Upaniṣhad, knowledge is being. You must never forget this truth. Knowledge does not mean knowledge of something. It is knowledge itself which is the being of everything.
'This great Being, this great Ātman is unborn. It is not caused by anything, and therefore it cannot be destroyed.' It has no birth and, therefore, it has no death. 'It is immortal. Fearlessness is Brahman' because there is no second to it. Where there is another external to you, there is fear from that being. Fearlessness is the state of the Absolute because next to it nothing is, second to it nothing exists – abhayaṁ vai brahma, abhayaṁ hi vai brahma: What is Brahman? 'Fearlessness is Brahman' because it is Oneness and, therefore, it is fearlessness. Abhayaṁ hi vai brahma bhavati ya evaṁ veda.: 'You become that fearless existence the moment you know That to be identical with your own existence.'