KNOWLEDGE AND PROGRESS 

official source: Subha's'ita Sam'graha Part 19

cross-references: also published in A'nanda Vacana'mrtam Part 23, Supreme 
	Expression Volume 1, Ba'ba''s Grace

this version: is the printed A'nanda Vacana'mrtam Part 23, 1st edition, version 
	(spelling mistakes only may have been corrected). The inclusion of this 
	discourse (as "The Real and the Unreal Knowledge") in A'nanda Vacana'mrtam 
	Part 23 was inadvertent, and it will be removed from that book when the 
	book is reprinted. However, this is the most up-to-date version as of the 
	present Electronic Edition. A paragraph was inadvertently repeated when 
	this version appeared in the printed book; that mistake has been corrected 
	here.

What is jina'na [knowledge]? It is subjectivization of the external objectivity. It leads a person from crudity to subtlety; that is, wherever this tendency is found, that can be termed jina'na, and where the tendency is not present, [there is no] jina'na. And what is the base of jina'na? Where jina'na is completely physical, its base is the mind; where it is entirely spiritual, its base is the soul. JiNa'na unifies the mind with the a'tman; this itself is the greatest quality of jina'na. That jina'na which does not unify the mind with the a'tman, is not jina'na but the confusion of jina'na. Because of this so-called jina'na, vanity creeps into a person. If you see a person with vanity, you must understand that that person has no knowledge, but the confusion of knowledge.

In the fifteenth century in India, and especially in Bengal, this confusion of knowledge developed excessively. The people of Bengal would keep arguing about minor things. For hours together they would talk about subjects such as sound, shape, etc. They thought themselves to be great in doing so, and the person having victory considered himself to be a great pandit. But these persons were neither pandits nor jina'niis. They were not pan'd'its because they were not established in pan'd'a bha'va [the feeling that one is Brahma], nor were they jina'niis, as their knowledge had not been subjectivized. They were arguing about pa'tra'dha'ra taela or taela'dha'ra pa'tra ["whether the pot is the container of the oil or the oil is contained in the pot"].

There was once an argument between two great pandits as to whether the sound of a falling palm-fruit is produced first, or the palm-fruit falls first. The discussion continued for a good number of months, but with no decision. They then decided to see practically, sitting under a tree one night, whether the palm-fruit falls first or the sound is produced first. The next morning it was found that both of them had been killed by palm-fruits falling on their heads. Hence this so-called knowledge is not a knowledge at all, but the confusion of knowledge, which you surely do not want to possess.

In the first stage, the mind itself is the base of knowledge. What is the mind? The structure of human beings is metazoic. In that structure there are innumerable protozoa, protozoic minds, and protozoic microcosms. The resultant of all these protozoic microcosms is in the human mind. And in this metazoic structure there are metazoic minds, and with them are metazoic microcosms. Actually, each metazoic mind is a collection of [a number of] protozoic minds. For a human with a complex physical structure, there is also a unit mind. So the mind of a human has three compartments: the first is the collective protozoic [mind], the second is the collective metazoic mind, and the third is his or her own separate mind. Taking all three together, we get a human's unit mind.

The protozoic minds are guided by instinct only. The protozoic mind is citta only, with no development of aham'[tattva] or mahattattva. Ingesting food, supporting offspring -- this is all done instinctively, according to their svabha'va [spontaneously], the reasons being quite unknown to those creatures. The earthworm does not know that it is an earthworm. It moves instinctively, spontaneously, according to its undeveloped mind. The protozoic minds and the protozoic microcosm can be said to be the physical mind. A protozoic creature has only physical mind. The collection of protozoic minds in the human can be said to be the physical mind of the human, known as the [ka'mamaya kos'a]. It is guided by instinct, there is no discrimination.

But the metazoic mind moves with some intellect, or discrimination, as there has been some development of intellect in it. Hence the metazoic mind has control over the protozoic mind. The more the metazoic mind is developed in a creature, the more developed the creature is; that is, a metazoic structure will be more complicated. And where this complication has increased considerably, that physical structure is the human physical structure.

The individual mind in a human is a metazoic mind. Some one million years ago, the first parents of humanity were australopithecines. The metazoic minds of the then people were very, very simple as compared to those of present-day people. Hence in the intellectual realm, the then people were quite underdeveloped. In the course of this one million years, the metazoic structure and physical structure of humans became very complicated. This resulted in the complication of their metazoic minds, too. Different propensities, a number of propensities, were added to their minds. The number of propensities in the human mind is far more than in animals' minds. The reason is that the metazoic structure, the physical structure, of a human is very complicated, hence the human's metazoic mind is very developed. 

The whole of a person comprises the person's own mind, the person's physical mind, and the metazoic minds. But in the protozoic minds there is a dominance of instinct. An animal does not understand discrimination, but the stick. You know that a person within whom there is a dominance of animality does not agree with logic, but [understands discipline].

You know that at the time of the fight between the Kaoravas and the Pa'n'd'avas, the latter [tried] very reasonably to make the former understand, but in vain. Yudhis't'hira even prayed to God for a change in them. There was the grace of Parama'tman also, but they were too crude to understand this. But they could very easily understand when they heard the thundering sound of Ga'n'd'iiva [the bow of Arjuna]. Hence the protozoic mind succumbs to physical [discipline], and nothing else.

All the protozoic minds in a human try to influence the human mind. The metazoic minds try to do likewise. Where the personal mind of a human is not vigilant, it becomes influenced by the protozoic minds and the metazoic minds. The person is led towards animality. But when the personal mind is vigilant, it has full control over the protozoic and metazoic minds. To maintain control is an internal fight. This fight is [the] first stage of sa'dhana'. This fight is quite essential for sa'dhana'. On the one side there is dharma buddhi [good thought], and on the other, the forces of instincts. 

Protozoic minds move instinctively, whereas metazoic minds move with abhijina'ta' [acquaintance, experience]. Hence undeveloped and underdeveloped metazoic structures work with both acquaintance and experience. Sub-human animals such as dogs and monkeys learn through this acquaintance [and experience]. The mind of an Alsatian dog becomes developed a lot when it comes in contact with a trainer; that is, it learns through training, for it has a metazoic mind. The jina'na of a protozoic mind, that is, instinct only, is known as "physical knowledge". The knowledge that a human acquires in touch with physicality is in its first stage physico-psychic. And when this physico-psychic knowledge becomes established in the mind, it is known as "psychic knowledge". And psychic knowledge, when it is translated into the physical world, is psycho-physical knowledge.

Worldly knowledge, the confusion of knowledge, is in its first stage physico-psychic, and then psychic. That itself is translated into the physical world, hence it is psycho-physical. And what is the source of this physico-psychic knowledge? -- let us see how far it is authentic. You derive jina'na from books. You will read "Lahore is the capital of the Punjab" in a book twenty-seven years old. But this does not stand correct today. This is because the source of physical knowledge is bound up by time, space, and person. With the change of time, space, and person, physical knowledge will change. Hence it is not a permanent knowledge. It is based on falsehood.

There can be still one more flaw in the source of physical knowledge, and that is a printing mistake. Because of it you read "Lahore" as "Labore". Next, there can be something wrong with your eyes, also, which causes you to read "Lanore". These things provoke laughter in the audience.

Hence because of defects in the different media, this knowledge will be wrong knowledge. If with this very knowledge a person is full of vanity, is that person not a first-class fool?

This physico-psychic knowledge has value to some small extent in the physical world. But its value is always changing. The theory which is appreciated today changes tomorrow. Hence every knowledge in the world -- every physico-psychic knowledge -- is defective. To be proud of this kind of knowledge is not at all the job of the wise. It is better to say, "I do not know anything."

So what is true knowledge? True knowledge is the knowledge of that object which never undergoes any metamorphosis due to changes in time, space, and person. Everything in the world is causal; that is, the effect is followed by the cause, and the cause by the effect. It goes on like this. The effect of one phase becomes the cause of the next. This is known as sadrsha parin'a'ma in Tantra. As long as we are under temporal, spatial and personal factors, the cause-and-effect factor will work. Where the cause-and-effect factor works, there only imperfection exists. One cannot be proud [of] the knowledge springing out of that source.

It is said in the Vedas, "I don't speak [about what] I don't know, nor do I speak [about what] I do know. Because the Transcendental Entity is known only by the person who knows that Parama'tman is beyond knowing and not knowing." This is because knowing is a particular psychic projection coming within the scope of time, space, and person. And not knowing is another psychic projection coming within the scope of time, space, and person.  

The Supreme Entity is beyond time, space, and person. It being non-changing, if a person makes an effort to acquire spirituo-psychic knowledge instead of physico-psychic, in order that the source of his or her knowledge be not the external physicality but rather internal spirituality, in that case that knowledge will be a perfect one. 

What happens in the case of spirituo-psychic knowledge is that though its source is absolute, its subject is relative, as the mind works within the scope of relativity. The source of spirituo-psychic knowledge is absolute, the only absolute. When humans start acquiring knowledge, they should not endeavour for physico-psychic knowledge, on the contrary they should endeavour for spirituo-psychic knowledge. In spirituo-psychic knowledge, in the first phase there is more of psychic than spiritual. But later on, when mental concentration is gained in and there is advancement in sa'dhana', the spiritual increases and the psychic decreases. And when gradually the proximity to spirituality increases, the psychic is completely eliminated, and only the spiritual exists. The final, terminating, point of this spirituo-psychic knowledge is spiritual knowledge, and that alone is knowledge. That is the real knowledge which does not change.

All physical, physico-psychic, psychic, and psycho-physical knowledge is not knowledge, but the confusion of knowledge. When humans realize that that so-called knowledge is of no value to them, then alone do they surrender to Parama Purus'a [Cosmic Cognition]. As long as people have the desire to acquire all relative knowledge, and try to do so, those people think themselves to be persons of letters, and refuse to surrender at the feet of Cosmic Cognition. When people's vanity becomes powdered down by different blows, they realize that their approach to knowledge was a defective one. Then they surrender, and their egos are dashed to pieces. The greatest knowledge in the realm of physicality and mentality is that all the knowledge acquired by one so far is false. This physical knowledge is like the leaf of a shala tree [a tall evergreen with large leaves] on which people take meals. As long as you have not eaten, there is a value in the leaf, but the moment you have finished your meal, the leaf goes into the dust bin to be licked by the street dogs. When you come to realize that this physical knowledge of yours is only worth licking by a dog, then devotion will arise in you. Then you will acquire true knowledge.

What is the nature of the psycho-spiritual approach through which one acquires spirituo-psychic knowledge? When the physical mind reaches the zenith of subtlety, that is known as physico-psychic knowledge. There the value of physico-psychic knowledge starts.When one is established in psychic knowledge, then there is the expression of the psycho-physical in it. Likewise, when psychic knowledge reaches the zenith of subtlety, it comes in contact with spirituality, and the point where spiritual knowledge or spirituo-psychic knowledge functions in the mental scope, is alone said to be spirituo-psychic knowledge. As matter is made to be the end of life in acquiring physical knowledge (fit to be thrown into the dust bin), so for acquiring spiritual knowledge, Parama'tman should be made the end. Then alone will people get real knowledge.*

How is it possible to make Parama'tman the end of your life? Parama'tman is the subject for the whole of the Cosmos, and the latter is His object. He is the Supreme Subjectivity, you are His object. It is not possible to make Him your object, as you are His object. Then what to do? You have to take the ideation that He is always witnessing you. The wise do not take Parama'tman as their object exactly, but rather think that they are being witnessed by Him. "Parama'tman is not my object; I am the object of Parama'tman." When this feeling is constantly there, always there, in a person, the name of this stage is dhruvasmrti. That you are the object of Parama'tman is known to you, but you do not remember this all the time. When through sa'dhana' a person never forgets that Parama'tman is always witnessing him or her, this is named dhruvasmrti. This alone is spiritual knowledge. In this stage alone does a person get true knowledge.

This spiritual knowledge can be translated into the mental sphere as well as into the physical sphere. If a person is willing to translate it, he or she should do so, for that will bring a lot of good to the world. This alone is real knowledge. With this alone, progress is possible. The most learned person is one who understands that he or she is not at all learned. 

You are spiritual aspirants. You must always remember that physico-psychic knowledge is needed only in the physical world. But when [spiritual knowledge] is acquired in the individual life, then it is no longer required.

This very spiritual knowledge is alone devotion; that is, knowledge finally transforms itself into devotion after constant efforts; that is, when knowledge realizes that nothing is to be effected by it, then alone does it surrender to devotion. When knowledge surrenders to devotion, that is spiritual knowledge. 

Hence remember that once you have got devotion, you have got everything. If Parama'tman asked you your demand, you should demand nothing, and if at all God is pleased to give you something, you should ask for para'bhakti [absolute devotion].

20 November 1966, Patna