Gyan Yoga – In Gita Verse 12.12 If you cannot take to this practice, then engage yourself in the cultivation of knowledge. Better than knowledge, however, is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action, for by such renunciation one can attain peace of mind.
In this verse Krisha talks on the path of knowledge, knowing – Gyan Yoga.
Buddha’s path is pure Gyan yoga, the path of knowing – Buddha’s path is the path of intelligence, pure intelligence, although it goes beyond it.
The intelligent person will go inward first. Before going anywhere else he will go into his own being; that is the first thing, and it should have the first preference. Only when you have known yourself can you go anywhere else. Then wherever you go you will carry a blissfulness around you, a peace, a silence, a celebration.
Intelligence is the spark. Helped, cooperated with, it can become the fire, and the light, and the warmth. It can become light, it can become life, it can become love: those are all included in the word enlightenment. An enlightened person has no dark corners in his being. All is like the morning – the sun is on the horizon; the darkness of the night and the dismalness of the night have disappeared, and the shadows of the night have disappeared. The earth is again awake. To be a buddha is to attain a morning, a dawn within you. That is the function of intelligence, the ultimate function.
And the meaning of budh is to fathom. A depth is there in you, a bottomless depth, which has to be fathomed. Or, this meaning can be to penetrate, to drop all that obstructs and penetrate to the very core of your being, the heart.
The path of Buddha is the path of budh. Remember that “buddha” is not the name of Gautama the Buddha, buddha is the state that he has attained. His name was Gautam Siddhartha. Then one day he became a buddha, one day his bodhi, his intelligence bloomed.
Buddha means exactly what Christ means. Jesus’ name is not Christ: that is the ultimate flowering that happened to him. So is it with Buddha. There have been many buddhas other than Gautam Siddartha.
Everybody has the capacity for budh. But budh, that capacity to see, is just like a seed in you – if it sprouts, becomes a big tree, blooms, starts dancing in the sky, starts whispering to the stars, you are a buddha.
The path of Buddha is the path of intelligence. It is not an emotional path, no, not at all. Not that emotional people cannot reach; there are other paths for them – the path of devotion, Bhakti yoga. Buddha’s path is pure Gyan yoga, the path of knowing. Buddha’s path is the path of meditation, not of love.
And just like budh, there is another root, gya, at the basis of gyanam. Gyanam means cognition, knowing. And the word prajna, which means wisdom – prajnaparamita – the wisdom of the beyond; or sangya, which means perception, sensitivity; or vigyanam which means consciousness, these roots come from gya. Gya means to know.
You will find these words repeated so many times in all the sutras of the Buddha. You will find a few more words, repeated very often, and those words are ved – ved means to know; from ved comes the Hindu word veda – or man, which means mind; manan which means minding; or chit, which means consciousness; chaitanya, which again means consciousness. These words are almost like paved stones on the Buddha Way. His path is that of intelligence.
One thing more to be remembered: it is true, points to something that lies far beyond the intellect. But the way to get to that is to follow the intellect as far as it will take you.
The intellect has to be used, not discarded; has to be transcended, not discarded. It can be transcended only when you have reached the uppermost rung of the ladder. You have to keep growing in intelligence. Then a moment comes when intelligence has done all that it can do. In that moment, say goodbye to intelligence. It has helped you a long way, it has brought you far enough, it has been a good vehicle. It has been a boat you crossed with: you have reached the other shore, then you leave the boat. Then you don’t carry the boat on your head; that would be foolish.
Buddha’s path goes through intelligence but goes beyond it. A moment comes when intelligence has given you all that it can give, then it is no longer needed. Then finally you drop it too, its work is finished. The disease is gone, now the medicine has to go too. And when you are free of the disease and the medicine too, only then are you free. Sometimes it happens that the disease is gone, and now you have become addicted to the medicine. This is not freedom.
A thorn is in your foot and is hurting. You take another thorn so that the thorn in your foot can be taken out with the help of the other. When you have taken the thorn out you throw both away; you don’t save the one that has been helpful. It is now meaningless.
Krishna says – The work of intelligence is to help you become aware of your being. Once that work has happened and your being is there, now there is no need for this instrument. You can say goodbye, you can say thank you.
The intelligent person will go inward first. Before going anywhere else he will go into his own being; that is the first thing, and it should have the first preference.
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