Spirituality Studies 10-1 Spring 2024 19 Michael James occurs only in the realm of such ignorance, so it is a product of ignorance and cannot exist without it. Therefore ignorance cannot be removed by any amount of action but only by knowledge of our own real nature. In this verse, therefore, Bhagavan clarifies the nature of the knowledge that will remove our ignorance of our own real nature. It is not a knowledge that can be acquired by any amount of “hearing” or “studying” (Sa. śravaṇa), “thinking” (Sa. manana) or meditating on anything other than ourself, because these are all mental activities and can therefore be done only by the mind and in the realm of self-ignorance. No amount of doing of any kind can enable us to acquire knowledge of what we actually are, because this knowledge is neither an “action” (Sa. karma) nor the “fruit of any action” (Sa. karma-phala). “Knowledge” (Sa. jñāna) is our real nature, our own very being, so it is not a knowledge that we need to do anything to acquire. To know ourself as we actually are we just need to be as we actually are, and we can be as we actually are only by turning our entire attention back within to cling firmly and steadily to our own being, “I am”. Since we are always ourself and never anything other than ourself, there is never a moment when we do not know ourself. However, though we always know ourself, when we rise and stand as ego we seem to know ourself as a set of “adjuncts” (Sa. upādhis), which is not what we actually are. Therefore, in order to know and to be what we always actually are, we must cease rising as ego, which we can do only by being so keenly and steadfastly self-attentive that we thereby cease to be aware of anything else at all, because only then will we be aware of ourself as nothing other than pure awareness, which is what we always actually are. That is, as Bhagavan clarified, the “ignorance” (Sa. avidyā or ajñāna) that prevents us knowing ourself as we actually are is nothing other than ego, the false awareness that always knows itself as “I am this body” and that consequently knows the appearance of other things, so no knowledge that may be acquired by ego can be the knowledge that will remove this ignorance. However, though as ego we can never know ourself as we actually are, we must try to know ourself as we actually are by turning our entire attention back within to face ourself alone, because only when we do so will we as ego subside and dissolve back into our own being in such a way that we will never rise again. What will then know ourself as we actually are is only ourself as we actually are, which always knows itself just by being itself. 15 When We Know Ourself, There Is Nothing Else To Know Nothing other than ourself actually exists, because whatever seems to be other than ourself is just an illusory appearance that seems to exist only in the view of ourself as ego, so being aware of anything other than ourself is not real “awareness” (Sa. cit) but just a “semblance of awareness” (Sa. cidābhāsa). Real awareness is only pure awareness, which is awareness that is not aware of anything other than itself. Since pure awareness alone is what actually exists, it is devoid not only of knowing but also of not knowing, because there is nothing other than itself for it either to know or to not know, as Bhagavan points out in verse 27 of Upadēśa Undiyār: Only knowledge that is devoid of knowledge and ignorance is knowledge. This is real. There is not anything for knowing. [28] The Tamil verb aṟi means “to know” or “to be aware”, so the noun aṟivu means both “knowledge” and “awareness”. Therefore, when Bhagavan says in the first sentence of this verse “only knowledge that is devoid of knowledge and ignorance is knowledge” (Ta. “aṟivu aṟiyāmai-y-um aṯṟa aṟivē aṟivu āhum”), what he implies is that only awareness that is devoid of both knowledge and ignorance of anything other than itself is real knowledge or awareness. In other words, only pure awareness (namely awareness that is not aware of anything other than itself) is real awareness. “This is real” (Ta. “uṇmai īdu”) means that only such awareness is real, because it alone is what actually exists, as implied by the word uṇmai, the etymology of which is uḷmai, “be-ness”, “is-ness” or “am-ness”, and which therefore means “being”, “existence”, “reality”, “truth” or “veracity”. “This is real” (Ta. “uṇmai īdu”) therefore implies that nothing other than awareness that is devoid of both knowledge and ignorance of anything else is real, so knowing anything other than ourself is not knowledge but only ignorance, because knowing other things is knowing what does not actually exist as if it exists, as he also implies in the next sentence: “There is not anything for knowing” (Ta. “aṟivadaṟku oṉḏṟu ilai”). That is, when we know ourself as we actually are, namely as pure “being-awareness” (Sa. sat-cit), nothing else will exist (or even seem to exist) for us either to know or to not know. Other things seem to exist only when we have risen and are standing as ego, as in waking and dream, and not when we do not rise as ego, as in sleep, so they seem to exist only in the view of ourself as ego, and hence
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjkyNzgx