SRI RAMAKRISHNA:
JNANA AND VIJNANA
NIROD BARAN CHAKRABORTY, Ph.D.
(Dr Nirod Baran Chakraborty’s lectures on the above
subject are continued from the previous issue and concluded here.)
HE [SRI RAMAKRISHNA] observes: ‘The Mother
Kali has shown me that She has become everything. She has shown me that all
things are Consciousness. The image is Consciousness. The platform is
Consciousness. The utensils for worshipping are Consciousness. The Threshold is
Consciousness. The marble stone is Consciousness. Everything in the room is in
the delight (rasa) of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.”11 This is why
Brahman has been compared to the sky (akasavat) and conceived of as immanent
(sarvagatasca) and eternal (nitya) in our sastras. This is the realization of a
vijnam.
This realization may be interpreted in two
ways. First by following Sankara one may say that Brahman or Consciousness is
the locus of everything. As we see a snake on the locus of a rope so we see the
world on the locus of Brahman or Consciousness. As the rope becomes the snake
in the sense that the rope appears as the snake, so Brahman or Consciousness
becomes the world in the sense that the Consciousness appears as the world.
This is vivartavada. The world is an appearance or vivarta of Bhrahman. In the
Chandogya Sruti we find -Yatha,
saumya, ekena mrtpindena sarvam mrnmayam vijnatam syadvacaram-bhanam vikaro
namadheyam mrttiketyeva satyam (just as, my dear, by one clowd of clay all that is made of clay becomes
known, the modification being only a name arising from speech while the truth
is that it is just clay),’ As when we know clay we know everything made of clay
and clay alone as real, so when a man knows Brahman he knows everything as
Brahman.
Secondly, the realization in question may be interpreted as the experience of the world being a transformation (parinama) of Brahman. The devotional Vedantins like ramanuja subscribe to this view. This is Parinamavada. But if Brahman is admitted as transformed into the world, the question will be: Why does the perfect Brahman admit of change? This he does in sportive spirit (teta). The limitless Being has limitless sports. Sri Ramakrishna used to say: As He is all-powerful, everything is possible for Him. We cannot understand His sport with our limited intelligence. In the Smrti we get ‘Acintyah khalu ye bhava na tamistarkena yojayet’, that which transcends thought should not be argued about.