Peace of Mind: Para Vidya, Path To Eternal Bliss

By SHRI ASHUTOSHJI MAHARAJ

Para vidya alone can show us the path to eternal bliss. Mundane knowledge, which produces 'intellectualism"cannot confer wisdom on us. Even the most amazing of scientific and technological advances have failed to bring lasting happiness in our lives. The exponential increase in knowledge has,surprisingly, led to more conflicts and destruction.

Para vidya is transcendental knowledge, which leads to wisdom. Apara vidya or secular knowledge merely enhances our vision of the outer world. Wisdom is perennial while knowledge is mainly informative and therefore transient. The former is stable, the latter, subject to change.

The Mundaka Upanishad makes a clear distinction between the higher knowledge of the Supreme Brahman and the lower knowledge of the empirical world. According to it, para vidya alone is a guide to the realisation of Brahman. The treatise also acknowledges the necessity of apara vidya as a means to earning a livelihood. The knowers of apara vidya, too, strive towards the attainment of thehighest reality, though in an imperfect manner.

The Upanishad states that the four Vedas and disciplines like etymology, metrics, astrology, phonetics, rituals and grammar fall in the category of lower knowledge or apara vidya. Para vidya, however, enjoys an exalted status. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that para vidya is the supreme and the most difficult of the sciences. It is all pervading, yet it is beyond the reach of the sense organs; and it is revealed to the seeker by a seer.

The Upanishad serves a warning to those who consider ritual as real: "deluded by sacrifice, austerity, alms- giving, pilgrimage and outer worship, men pass many years in misery". A similar note of caution is sounded in the Garuda Purana .

Sage Katha in Katha Upanishad condemns those who go about flaunting their knowledge of the scriptures, saying: "Abiding in the midst of ignorance, wise in their own esteem, thinkingthemselves to be learned, (they) go about like blind men led by one who is himself blind".

The Upanishad also tells us that the consummate spiritual experience takes place when a seeker sees God through divine eyes. When a perfect sage imparts para vidya to the pupil, the bonds of ignorance that fetter him are cut loose, all doubts are dispelled and the fire of this divine knowledge turns all his actions or karmas into ashes. Such is the power of the knowledge of Brahman.

On being blessed with para vidya, the soul is freed of all attachments, enters the calm stillness of the self and is able to perform tasks without compulsion, for the sake of duty alone rather than out of self-interest or benefit. Its life then becomes a free flow of liberated consciousness, incapable of rest since the living God Himself does not rest. A deep, unmoved repose at the centre and an unbounded, perpetual creativity are the prominent features of such an individual.

The individual then becomes liberated, a jivan mukt a in the present life. He performs his duties like an actor on stage, freed of any selfish motives. He is not deluded by what he does on stage. He will do his duty impartially, regardless of gain or loss. His concern is with action only, not with the result. He sees action in inaction and inaction in action. This is complete surrender and is the true spirit of renunciation.

Just as rivers disappear into the ocean, casting off name and form, the knower of Brahman, freed from name and form, arrives at the supreme reality. Such an individual realises the universality of the spirit. This is the pinnacle of human perfection, which all scriptures glorify.

(As told to S K Vasudeva)

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See also: Peace of Mind, Peace on Earth, Life and Beyond, Love and Happiness, Body Mind and Soul)