Lord Krsna has stated jñānam as the qualification to understand jñeyaṁ.
Now jñeyam is explained.
jñeyaṁ yattat pravakṣyāmi yajjñātvāmṛtam aśnute | anādimatparaṁ brahma na sat tannāsad ucyate ||13.12||
What is to be known, that I will tell clearly, knowing which one gains deathlessness. That is said to be Brahman, which has no beginning, is limitless, and is neither existent (as an object) nor non existent.
jñeyaṁ - what is to be known, which is brahman. There are a lot of things to be known in this world, but by knowing this, one gains deathlessness - amṛtam aśnute. There are a lot of things which are not desired by every one of us, but death is the most fear for and undesirable among all the sorrow. Only when one can't anymore endure suffering, then one might seek death as the way out. Therefore param - limitless and should be anādimat - no beginning, since what is born is limited by time, space and object. Only there is a beginning, then there is end. Only by knowing brahman who has no beginning, no end and not limited by time, space and object, one becomes limitless. But if one knows an eternal object other than oneself, how will one be free from death? By knowing/owning up something eternal, one doesn't become eternal. If by knowing something, one becomes eternal, that something only can be oneself. Therefore that eternal brahman is known non-different from oneself.
The difficulty here is that the only one thing everybody knows is ātmā - consciousness. There is no need to consult anybody about one's existence/consciousness. But what we know about oneself is the opposite from the truth. Therefore we seek śāstra pramānam. We are not trying to establish our existence with the help of śāstra, just like it helps us to establish whether there is heaven or not, where we couldn't find out by our own. Śāstra establishes what we don't know that ātmā is equated to brahman which has no beginning - anādimat, and limitless - paraṁ, not limited by time (birth, death or any modification). It is difficult to understand, therefore śruti is using the neti neti prakriya - method of negation to make us understand, which is employed by Lord Krsna in this verse also.
This limitless brahman is na sat tat na asad - not an existent thing nor non-existent (not the usual meaning as satyam and mithya). That being something to be known - jñeyam, we would think either the object which is exist as "it is", or something non-existence as "it is not". Because our intellect only can comprehend what is exist now or not exist now. By saying brahman is not sat, all existent objects are negated and we are made to understand that brahman is not a particular object / being where our senses or mind can objectify. Brahman is also not asat where total non-existence is also being negated. That being so jñeyam brahman is neither object of "is" cognition or "is not" cognition". Another saying brahman is not the existence effects neither non-existence cause. Any given effect is limited by time, space, and name & form (object wise limitation). Even though every name and form is having brahman as the support, but brahman is not that particular name and form, since brahman is not limited by it. Brahman is also negated as the non-existence cause, because the status of brahman being the creator of this universe is also incidental (not the nature of brahman). If brahman is not an effect nor cause, what is brahman? How do we know this kind of brahman?
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