The End of all Knowledge
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
at the University of Nottingham in England
“Aum. Purnam...”
Infinity is that. Infinity is this. From Infinity, Infinity has come into existence. From Infinity, when Infinity is taken away, Infinity remains.
The end of all knowledge. The end of all knowledge is God-knowledge. This knowledge tells man what he can eventually be. This knowledge tells man that he can have a conscious and inseparable oneness with God.
Here at this point, the Son of God tells us, "I and my Father are one". On the strength of his highest realisation and inseparable oneness with his Father, he says, "I and my Father are one".
God-knowledge tells us that God is not only within us and not only for us, but also we are, each human being, is of Him. Finally, this God-knowledge tells us that each human being has to become God himself.
"Brahmasmi..." "I am the Brahman. I am God." This is what we have learned from the Vedic seers of yore. The Vedic seers realised the supreme Truth and then offered the supreme Truth to mankind. Today's man, today's unrealised, unfulfilled man is tomorrow's realised and fulfilled God.
The end of human knowledge is the beginning of the divine knowledge. The divine knowledge and human ignorance — these are two things we see in our day to day life. The divine knowledge is an illumining, fulfilling and immortalising power. The human ignorance is a mad elephant, a destructive power. The divine knowledge is the very birth of Immortality. Human ignorance is the song of death.
I am sure most of you are well acquainted with our Upanishads. There is an Upanishad named Kanshitaki Upanishad. Unfortunately, this Upanishad is not well known. This Upanishad offers a sublime knowledge, wisdom. It says,
“Speech is not what one should desire to understand. One should know the speaker.... The deed is not what one should desire to understand. One should know the doer.... Mind is not what one should desire to understand. One should know the thinker.”
Here at this point, I wish to say from the spiritual point of view, peace, light and bliss, these qualities are not what one desires to understand, but one has to know the living embodiment of peace, light, bliss and power. It is he who can bring to the fore these divine qualities — the peace, light and bliss of the sincere aspiring souls. It is he who has the capacity to inspire the seekers, and at the same time, it is he who is of considerable help to awaken the slumbering consciousness of human souls. It is he who expedites the seeker's journey.
The end of all knowledge is self-knowledge. “Know thyself”, which all of you are familiar with. The Sanskrit term for it is atmanam viddhi. Know thyself. How can we know ourselves? We have to know ourselves by taking help from someone who has already known himself. He is our teacher. He is our private tutor and not a school teacher. A school teacher is entitled to examine us, to pass or fail us, but this private tutor helps us to pass the examination well. He wholeheartedly teaches us, helps us to pass the examination. So a spiritual teacher is a private tutor and not a school teacher.
Self-knowledge is self-discovery, and in self-discovery we feel the conquest of our own self. Self-discovery, God-knowledge and self-conquest — these are one and the same.
The Welsh Triad says,
“There are three kinds of men: man in man, who does good for good and evil for evil; man in God, who does good for evil; and man in the devil, who does evil for good.”
In our spiritual life, we have one more category: the man of God, the messenger of God, the representative of God, the channel of God, the instrument of God. This instrument of God constantly feels that he is not the doer; he is a mere instrument.
Lord Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, the Song Celestial, tells his dearest friend and disciple, Arjuna, Nimitta matram bhava savyasachin, “You just become an instrument.”
So the man of God feels in the inmost recesses of his heart that he is a mere instrument. He works for God, he lives for God. He feels that God-realisation is not enough. He feels that God-manifestation here on earth is of paramount importance.
Many have realised the Highest, the transcendental Truth. There are few who cry for the perfection of humanity. There are very few who try to change the face of the world. The chosen instruments of God want to manifest God here on earth. They do not care much for earthly good or evil. They transcend the so-called good and evil. They care only for God's inner dictates. Constantly they listen to the dictates of their Inner Pilot and then on the strength of their oneness, inseparable oneness with their Inner Pilot, they offer their selfless, dedicated service to humanity. They try to offer knowledge, divine knowledge to aspiring humanity. Again, they tell humanity that God-realisation is not their sole monopoly.
Everybody has to realise God, the transcendental Truth. Everybody is destined to realise the highest Truth, but he who cries for the inner light will naturally reach the goal sooner than the one who is still fast asleep.
The great Saviour has taught us, “No man can serve two masters.” Here we have two masters: ignorance and knowledge. Now if we want to wallow in the pleasures and mires of ignorance, we are serving ignorance the master. Again, it is we who have the opportunity to serve the other master, knowledge, the light. Now if we aspire, then our master is knowledge and knowledge-light. If we want to serve our master, knowledge-light, then the message of realisation, the message of perfection can never remain a far cry.
The immortal poet, George Eliot sings, “Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been, makes us what we are".
From the spiritual point of view, what do we learn from this soulful message? We come to learn that we have been victims to teeming desires and here is the result: we are still earth-bound. We are bound by the fetters of ignorance; we are caught. We want to possess the world. To our widest surprise and sorrow, we are already caught, we are already possessed.
Now again, it is we who have the capacity, potentiality, opportunity to free ourselves from the mire of ignorance. If we aspire today, tomorrow we are growing into a divine reality, and in that divine reality our realisation will loom large.
We have to know at every moment that we have to be true to ourselves. Do we want light? Do we want perfection? Or just out of curiosity do we want to have an iota of light and truth? Unless and until we are true to ourselves, true to our inner quest, we can never, never see the face of reality, fulfilment and perfection.
Most of you know that the immortal poet, Shakespeare, in "Hamlet" says,
“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
If we really want the inner light, if we really have the inner cry to see God face to face, there can be nothing either on earth or in heaven to deny us, deny our soul's inmost quest. Each individual being has limited freedom. This freedom can be utilised either to aspire or to desire. If we desire, the teeming clouds will undoubtedly eclipse our knowledge-sun. If we aspire, God, the Inner Pilot will inspire us to run fast, faster, fastest towards the destined Goal, the Goal of the Beyond.
When we enter into the spiritual life, we come to realise that there is no end to our journey. Today we may think that this is the goal we have been crying for. But when we go deep within, we feel that today's goal is tomorrow's starting point.
God is in everything. We have to see God in everything, feel God in everything, in every human being. But that is not enough. We have to see, feel, realise; then we have to go one step further. We have to realise that there is no end to our realisation. Every moment we have to feel that on the strength of our highest realisation, we are going, we are running towards the ever-transcending Beyond.
The end of all knowledge is God-knowledge. We have to see God. This is the ultimate knowledge. Now, there are three ways to see God. One way is to see God through a window. This we can do if we concentrate daily, say, for six hours on God. But if we want to see God through an open door, then we have to meditate. We have to meditate daily for at least twelve hours. But if we want to see God face to face, as you are seeing me and I am seeing you, then we have to meditate twenty-four hours a day.
To see God constantly face to face is the beginning and blossoming of the transcendental Knowledge.
Published in My Rose Petals, part 1
Remarks about Elderly People
At his house in New York, Sri Chinmoy made the following remarks about elderly people. The year 1998 was the International Year of Older Persons.
I sincerely feel that elderly people should be appreciated, admired and adored. I am not saying this because I am also an elderly person, but because right now the world is ignoring elderly people. They were also once upon a time little saplings. Then they became trees and afterwards they became banyan trees.
While they were saplings, that is, when they were children, they gave joy to their parents, grandparents and great grandparents. Then, when they became older, they definitely inspired people.
We always talk about the distant future, but we have to know that the golden past was once upon a time the distant future. In the golden past, these elderly people were little children. They gave so much joy to their families. If we do not honour them, we are not going to receive their compassion, affection, fondness and wisdom. If we ignore them, then they will be split from their past, as if a tree were cut into two. How can the tree remain alive if it is chopped somewhere? If the tree is to be kept alive, then it has to keep its roots as well as its branches and leaves. The same tree, a few years ago, before it became too old, produced most delicious fruits, most beautiful flowers.
Similarly, old people brought name, fame, plus financial security to the family. So how can you ignore them? If gratitude wants to take birth, these elderly people should be appreciated, admired and adored for what they have done for the entire world family. Their very presence has to be a source of inspiration. And this inspiration the young generation will also one day hold, after forty or fifty years, to inspire their younger ones.
Published in Conversations with Sri Chinmoy.