What is the difference between object of knowledge and goal of knowledge in Gita chp 13?

What is the difference between object of knowledge (jneya) and goal of knowledge (jnana-gamya) in Gita chp 13?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
The question is in Bhagavad Gita 13.18, what is the exact difference between Jnanam, Geyam and Gangamyam? So now if you look at the start of the chapter, Arjuna has asked three questions, Kshetrak, Kshetragya, Purushya, Prakriti and Jnanam and Geyam. So now, the word Srila Prabhupada uses is knowledge, goal of knowledge and object of knowledge.
So actually Srila Prabhupada earlier explains that this goal of knowledge and object of knowledge, how are they different? That object of goal refers to the ultimate things. Vishwanath Chakrathakur says that Jnanagamyam refers to, so like gamyate means to go towards the destination, so that absolute truth who is attained by knowledge. So that means the difference between object of knowledge and goal of knowledge is that.
Okay, he is the ultimate person whom we want to know about. He is the ultimate target of our knowledge. That’s the first aspect.
But how is that target to be achieved? So this is the Jnana section of the Bhagavad Gita. So Krishna is also saying over here that that absolute truth can be attained by knowledge. That means, we are talking about two different things, the process and the goal.
So he is the goal of knowledge, but that goal of knowledge is also attained by cultivating the process of knowledge. So cultivating the process of knowledge means that Sambandha Jnana what we have. So by the process of Sambandha Jnana, even within the realm of Bhakti, Jnana is important.
It may not be all important, but it is important. Now from this, I’ll just give you different understandings of this verse. The first understanding is that Krishna is the ultimate person or object that we want to know about.
But we know about him by cultivating the knowledge of Sambandha Jnana. So now of course, cultivating the knowledge of Sambandha Jnana involves the process of practicing Bhakti. So in that sense, we can say it is by Bhakti that we know him.
But even Bhakti involves the cultivation of knowledge. So that’s the understanding that by cultivating knowledge, we get to know him. And he is the person whom we want to know.
So in one sense, Jnana and Jnanagamyam is like the means and the process is the same. So the ends and the means are the same. So our end is we want to know Krishna and our means is that we cultivate knowledge of Krishna to know Krishna ultimately.
That’s one understanding. We cultivate knowledge about Krishna through the process of Bhakti and at the end of it, we know Krishna. So it’s just like the transcendent example that is given about understanding how the holy name and Krishna are not different.
There’s a person who didn’t know what is gold and he went to a king and the king told him to climb up the stairs and go to his treasury and when he saw gold over there, then when he came back he saw that the staircase was also lined with gold. So it’s like that. In that sense, Krishna is the process and the goal.
So he’s the goal of knowledge, but he’s also the process of knowledge. Jnanagamyam is the goal of knowledge. That means the object is the target of knowledge.
So the target of knowledge is Krishna. But how is the target of knowledge to be got? The target of knowledge is to be got also by the process of knowledge. So Jnana is the target of knowledge and Jnanagamyam is the process of knowledge.
So in that sense, now another way of understanding this is that it’s obtained by the process of knowledge. Exactly. So that’s the point.
So Krishna is the goal. Krishna is whom we want to know and it is Krishna whom we get to know by cultivating knowledge. So ultimately this is not referring to knowledge.
All this is referring to Krishna only. But the difference is that, is of emphasis. So he is whom we want to know and he is whom we get to know by cultivating knowledge.
So in that sense, Krishna’s relationship with the target, with the objective of our knowledge and with the process of our knowledge, they are referred to in this verse. So the two are slightly distinct in their emphasis. That’s why he is whom we want to know and he, it is he who we come to know by cultivating knowledge.
So that’s the subtle difference between the two. So ultimately it’s not about, it’s the emphasis is not about target of knowledge and process of knowledge, but it is about Krishna as the target of knowledge, Krishna as the one who is attained by the process of knowledge. So now apart from that, Prabhupada explains on the way to Krishna that all knowledge comes from Krishna, but knowledge doesn’t begin from Krishna.
So all knowledge comes from Krishna, but knowledge doesn’t begin from Krishna. What he means by that is, that ultimately everything that we know is by the grace of Krishna. But when we want to start acquiring knowledge, we don’t suddenly start thinking about Krishna.
We start observing the world around us and we start seeing how the world works and then maybe from seeing the visible world around us, people try to think of the invisible ordering principle that is there. So in that sense, the Jnana, as far as the Jnana is concerned, the Jnana includes the material world, the spiritual world and Krishna because ultimately these are all the things that we try to know. These are all within our field of knowledge.
Different people have different conceptions of what they want to focus on in their studies and Shri Prabhupada writes in the Krishna book that ultimately everybody is thinking about Krishna because whatever they are thinking about is a combination of Krishna’s material and spiritual energies. But they are not aware that they are thinking about Krishna. So that means Jnana here refers to the totality of whatever that is there to be known.
So in a sense that is Krishna because the totality of all that is there to be known is a manifestation of the combination of energies of Krishna. But beyond the totality of all that is there to be known, there is something that is most important to be known. So like Shri Prabhupada quotes in the 7.2 from the Upanishads, yasmin vijnate sarvam evam vijnatam bhavati.
Once you know him, everything is known. So in that sense, Krishna as the person, personality who is the ultimate goal of knowledge, that is referred to by Jnana Gamya and Gamya refers to the totality of everything that is there to be known. So in one sense, the two are non-different because the energies and energetics are non-different.
But again, just like we have 9.4 and 9.5, the difference between Krishna says everything is sustained by me and then he says everything is not sustained by me. matthani sarva bhutani na cha matthani bhutani. So in that sense, Gamya refers to the whole, all kinds of kshetra that are there.
The whole prakriti, purusha and their combination. All that is the object of knowledge. But it is not all the goal of knowledge.
Shri Prabhupada gives an example for this, that there was some American scholar who came to meet him and he said that, Shri Prabhupada, science has advanced so much in the knowledge of so many things. So they were going on a morning walk and then Prabhupada asked him, what is the current knowledge about the soul? So they said, what is the current scientific knowledge about the soul? He said, there is no scientific knowledge about the soul. That means you have no scientific knowledge at all.
Then Prabhupada said, no, actually, that scientist said, but we have so much knowledge of another kind. For example, we have the knowledge of how this grass grows. We have two big volumes explaining the growth of the grass.
So Shri Prabhupada was quite dismissive. He said, even without your books, the grass was still growing. But then if God did not want us to study this grass, why did he put it there? So then Shri Prabhupada came to the point.
He said, my point is that you study the grass and you forget the God who put the grass there. So then the scientist went back and wrote his own article, his experience about Shri Prabhupada, which is published in a sort of memorial volume later. So he says that what this Bhaktivedanta Swami was saying is, something similar to if a person is in a jail and if he studies everything about the jail, the paint on the jail walls, the tiling of the jail walls and the floor, but he does not try to find out what is the, where is the key, what is the way to get out of the jail? What is the use of all his knowledge? So in that sense, for a person in the jail, everything can be studied, but the most important, the most relevant for him to study is how to get out of the jail.
So like that, everything in the world is a goal of knowledge. It can be a goal of knowledge. One can make a PhD thesis on how to design a glass with the best design and the least weight and the most aesthetic appeal.
But the most important thing is that how do I make the get out of material existence? For that, one needs to know Krishna. So Jnana refers to the totality of everything that is there to know. And in one sense, it all is Krishna.
But in spite of that, knowing all that is not the ultimate goal of knowledge. The ultimate goal of knowledge is to know Krishna. So that is the difference between Jnana and Jnanagamya.
So Krishna is both, but knowledge about Krishna’s personal aspect is higher than the knowledge of Krishna’s energies. Especially if one is aware of Krishna’s energies without being aware of their connection with Krishna. And the word Jnana refers to what has been described earlier as the process for acquiring knowledge.
Amanitvam, Adambitvam, that came earlier. What is the process for acquiring knowledge? That is called as Jnana. Sure.
Question by Sumit. Lord Krishna says in the