Jnana-yoga

God has three eyes. Their names are Jnana, Karma and Bhakti. Jnana wants to live in its Father's transcendental Truth. Karma wants to live in its Father's all-pervading universal Truth. Bhakti wants to live in its Father's most intimate Truth.

God has three sons. Their names are Jnana-Yoga, Karma-Yoga and Bhakti-Yoga. Jnana-Yoga wants to live in his Father's transcendental Truth. Karma-Yoga wants to live in his Father's all-pervading universal Truth. Bhakti-Yoga wants to live in his Father's most intimate Truth.

The man of action needs God’s guidance. The man of devotion needs God’s protection. The man of knowledge needs God’s instruction.

The Bhakta's faith in God and the Karma-Yogin's love for humanity do not interest a Jnana-Yogin, much less inspire him. He wants nothing but the mind. With his mental power he strives for the personal experience of the highest Truth. He thinks of God as the Fount of Knowledge. He feels that it is through his mind that he will attain to his Goal. At the beginning of his path, he feels that nothing is as important as the fulfilment of the mind. Eventually he comes to realise that he must transcend the mind if he wishes to live in the Supreme Knowledge.

Life is a mystery. So is death. A Jnana-Yogin wants to fathom these two apparently insoluble mysteries of God’s creation. He also wants to transcend both life and death and abide in the Heart of the Supreme Reality.

Man lives in the sense-world. He does not know whether this world is real or unreal. He is satisfied with his own existence. An ordinary man has neither the thinking capacity nor the sincere interest to enter into the deeper meaning of life. He wants to escape the problems of life and death. Unfortunately there is no escape. He has to swim in the sea of ignorance. A Jnana-Yogin alone can teach him how he can swim across the sea of ignorance and enter the Sea of Knowledge and Light.

A Jnana-Yogin declares: "Neti, neti." Not this, not this. What does he mean by that? He means that there is a higher world than this sense-world, a higher truth than this earth-bound truth. He says, in a sense, that there are two opposing parties. One party consists of falsehood, ignorance and death. The other party consists of Truth, Knowledge and Immortality. While uttering "Neti, neti" he asks man to reject falsehood and accept Truth, reject ignorance and accept Knowledge, reject death and accept Immortality.