The Process

The Process

Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati

Jnana yoga is cultivation of self-awareness. A properly guided awareness develops into knowledge, understanding, knowing. Without awareness, the process of knowing is not complete and therefore the basic foundation of jnana yoga is awareness. You can translate jnana yoga as the yoga of knowledge, or the yoga of self-enquiry, yet they are just labels to understand jnana yoga. The process of jnana yoga begins with the first rung which is awareness, knowing, the beginning of knowing, observation, self-awareness.

Try to have the component of awareness in as many moments of the day as humanly possible. Begin with that understanding. It can be a few minutes as our span of awareness is limited. You will notice that if you think you are being aware, you will also realize that you are being distracted. There is a fine line between awareness and distraction. Distraction and awareness go hand-in-hand and you have to think of awareness. There is a fine line, a fine understanding and you should be able to differentiate between developing focused awareness and awareness converting into distraction. That is where the understanding of each individual comes into play, it is the cultivation of awareness but staying away from distraction.

Then through self-observation and self-perception, identify the SWAN principles of your life. What are your strengths, what are your weaknesses and do you need to convert any weakness into strength or you can just ignore those things? Many times when we make a list of our strengths and weaknesses, we think, 'This weakness, I will try to overcome.' Is that really necessary for you? Rethink about it for there are many areas where we can divert our attention that may not be necessary for our growth and development.

Just because we seem to be attracted to something does not mean that it is important in the long run. In the short term, infatuation can make you take any decision and generally in life that is where problems begin. When our vision is only short term, we can't see beyond certain moments of our life. Similarly, when we look at our own nature, if you want to search for gold you have to remove tons and tons of dirt in order to discover one tiny nugget. It is one thing to make a list of strengths and weaknesses, but it is another thing to identify, ‘This is what I am going to be.’ You cannot be all-encompassing. That is impossible. Throughout human history nobody in this life has had everything, no. Out of one thousand, maybe we can acquire ten, fifteen, twenty qualities. Maybe we can acquire twenty-five, thirty, forty, fifty, even one hundred but never one thousand. Life is not long enough to acquire all the thousand qualities.

Whatever we can acquire, even if it is five items, that is our gain, our achievement and fulfilment in life. We come to the limit of evolution in this life. There is a limit to evolution in this life. After all, when you die, evolution stops. Maybe something else happens, but the perceivable, physical, material evolution stops after you die; you don't exist. If you don't exist, then what is perceivable, material evolution? It doesn't exist. So you have to have an awareness of how you wish to see yourself five years down the line, ten years, fifteen years down the line. What you wish to become in fifteen, twenty years is the practical aim of your life.

After all, a student decides to become a doctor or engineer only after passing certain grades. Then the training and preparation to become excellent in the chosen profession begins, and that takes time. You don't become a doctor in one day. You have to first go through the general training, then the common medical training, then specialized medical training and education and then into other specializations. You only become a general practitioner, after you complete a certain number of years of basic medical education. If it takes you ten years to become a specialist, even after receiving your degree you do not immediately become a qualified, experienced practitioner. The experience which you gain through your involvement in your profession ultimately makes you known and recognized. It is not just the degree, but the experience. You can have a degree in surgery and never operate on anyone. Even though the degree is from Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard, will you be successful? However, if you work on a thousand patients and cultivate that skill, you will be recognized as an authority. It is not the degree which is final. It is the experience, your participation and involvement which makes you become what you want to become.

You have to apply the same principle in lifestyle too. Begin by discovering how your nature, how your personality functions and what the shortcomings and the strengths are. What qualities do you need to cultivate? What skills do you need to cultivate? What understanding do you need to cultivate to become what you want to become in ten, fifteen, in twenty years' time? The SWAN principle should help you to analyze and understand this directional focus of life. After cultivating awareness, this is the beginning of self-observation and self-regulation.

You will not reach anywhere by thinking, 'I am one with the transcendental.' To cultivate that mentality, you have to start with personal discovery. If you have a car and you don't know how a car functions, when there is a breakdown you have had it. If you have a car and you have a basic. understanding of the radiator, brake, clutch, brake fluid, spark plugs and all that, when anything happens you can take care of it. In the same manner, you have to know the nuts and bolts of your personality before you try to discover how petrol is converted into power and propulsion. That is a highly technical subject. You don't have to worry about how petrol is converted into propulsion by burning it, yet anyone can know about the mechanics. You have to know how to look after your brake and clutch, spark plugs and steering wheel, hand brake and gears, that is more important. In jnana yoga, this component of self-observation and self-tuning comes with the application of the SWAN principle.

So first is awareness, then self-observation and self-regulation, then is attitudinal change. Is the glass half empty or half full? You decide. In my opinion, if I say half empty then I am aware of the absence of water, whereas if I say it is half full then I am aware of the presence of water. Even though it may be half or a quarter, I am aware of the presence of water and not the absence of water. If there is awareness of absence that will lead to personal suffering and if there is awareness of presence it will lead to contentment and acceptance. So attitudinal change has to come in our regular interactions of day-to-day life.

—16 January 2009, Ganga Darthan, Munger