Why are the eka-bhakti jnanis of Gita 7.17 considered jnana-mishra?

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
One question, when the Jnanis of 7.16 and 17, 16, 17, 18 in the Gita are already Ekabhaktir, why are they considered Jnanamishra? So, the 7.15, 16 talks about people who approach Krishna. So, it’s more like a starting point. And it’s a starting point, starting point for people.
He uses the word bhajante. He doesn’t, he uses the word prapadyante later on in 7.19. So, that’s more of a starting point for the practice of bhakti. And Krishna uses the word Jnani consistently in the three verses, 16, 17, 18.
And 19, he uses the word Jnanavan. So, Jnanavan is one who is possessing knowledge, rich with knowledge, normally we say Dhanavan, Bhagyavan, means who is rich with something, Balavan. So, now if you see the Jnani is initially said to be Chaturvidha bhajante mam, he is put in that category.
But then he is raised above that category in the next two verses, where it is Ekabhaktir Vishishti, he said that, he is devoted to me. But the Jnanavan is said to be Vasudeva Sarvamithi and Prapadyante, understand that I am everything and he surrenders to me entirely, Krishna sees. And he is Sir Mahatma.
So, now in 16, he is saying that these are Sukhrtina, whereas 19 he is saying is Mahatma. So, there is a clear gradation over there. Now, one way of looking at the flow is that these four categories of people over Bahunam, Janmanam, Ante, they all become Mahatmas.
They approach Krishna and gradually they become Mahatmas. Now, among these four, Krishna clearly favors the Jnanis. And he says that they are Ekabhaktir Vishishti, he said they are dear to me and they are definitely superior to others.
So, now the Jnanis, now if you see that between the Jnani and the Jnanavan, they are in terms of not just the words used, but in terms of the conception also, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of difference. Because if you say Ekabhaktir Vishishti, we are saying over there, and then here is Vasudeva Sarvamithi Prapadyante. So, it’s quite similar.
So, in the progress from the Sukritino to the Mahatma, the Jnanis will have to cover the shortest distance. Because they are already, Krishna is saying they are quite pure, they are fixed in me, they are dear to me. So, the point here is that actually their mode of approaching Krishna is intellectual, it is not devotional.
The example which I think Rupa Goswami gives for all these four categories, Artho, Jijnasur, Artharthi, Jnani. So, he gives Artho is Gajendra, Artharthi is Dhruva, and Jijnasur is the Shana Kadesh Vishishti. And Jnani, he usually gives examples like Shukadeva Goswami and Kumaras.
So, now if you see, in the Bhagavad Gita itself, there is not much stress given to the association of devotees except for say 10.9, Machittamadgata Prana. But the Acharyas explain that this progression from Sukritino to Mahatma, that happens primarily, Prabhupada also explains this purport, that happens when they get the association of devotees. So, we also see that both Shukadeva Goswami and Kumaras, once either they get the association of the Lord or the association of devotees, their devotional just blossoms immediately.
So, they don’t have any attachment to matter. Through their knowledge, they already have detachment from matter. And when they get knowledge of the Lord, then the attachment just goes off.
So, they are called Jnanis or Jnanamishra Bhaktas primarily because their mode of approaching Krishna is intellectual. It’s not devotional. But because they interact with Krishna or because their interaction or introduction to Krishna, either directly as it happens with the Kumaras or indirectly through sound vibration or through hearing from his father for Shukadeva Goswami, that when it is devotional, their devotion triggers off very fast.
So, that if you see, when they approach Krishna, they are approaching primarily from an intellectual mode. And intellectual mode means they are seeking the absolute truth and they want to know what is the absolute truth and they want to pursue the absolute truth. But they are not necessarily concerned, they don’t necessarily have the conception that the absolute truth is a person and that absolute truth is the person whom I should be loving.
See, that means, it’s like though we talk about in Vedanta Sutra, Athato Brahma Jijnasa. So, that Brahma Jijnasa faculty is very strongly developed in them. And now the difference between Jijnasa with Prabhupada also explained that Jijnasa to be more like a casual curiosity.
It’s a favorable casual, it’s not a very serious curiosity. But the Jnani, they have made it more like a primary search of their life. So, there are people who, no, no, no, the devotion, it’s like there is a starting point.
And from the starting point, there is further progress. So, when they are approaching at the start, they don’t have devotion in the sense that they are not directly approaching with a devotional intention. So, they are approaching more with a philosophical, intellectualized conception.
But they are fortunate that their interaction with the Lord happens in a devotional setting, either because of the Lord’s devotional attractiveness or because of devotees. And there their devotion kindles and grows very fast. And that’s how they move from the Jnani level to the Jnanavan level.
And when Krishna talks about them in the next verse, when he is saying, ek bhaktir vishishyate, they are fixed in their devotion to me. That essentially means that they are recognizing that this is the absolute truth and I have to devote myself to the absolute truth. So, if they approach Krishna and they get appropriately exposed to Krishna, that means they get a devotional understanding of Krishna, then immediately they become devoted to him.
So, till that point, I would say many of the exalted devotees who in our movement also, several of them were searching for the truth, but they were not necessarily in a directly devotional mode. But they had a serious search for the spiritual truth. And when they got the conception of Krishna, then it was like, it’s like chumbaka, you know, like an iron fangling gets attracted to a magnet.
So, it was a very strong attraction thereafter. So, the individual motivation for the search was not primarily out of a desire to love God. It is a desire to know the truth.
And once there is a interaction, devotional interaction with the Lord through any of his manifestations, then the devotion takes place, grows very rapidly. So, it’s like, when there is, yeah, it’s just like, it’s just like, if somebody has a, if a spark falls on dry wood, or it falls on wet wood, or it falls on just water. So, the likelihood of the spark growing is different.
So, sometimes this example is given for satvaguna, rajoguna, tamoguna, and any connection with transcendence. So, when somebody is satvaguna, then the contact with transcendence, that can trigger a flame of the search for the absolute truth very rapidly. So, the jnanis, elsewhere Krishna repeatedly equates jnana, sattva sanjayate jnanam, he says, in the 14th chapter.
So, more or less, because they are in goodness, and the artharthi and the arthi, they may not be so much in goodness, they may primarily be rajoguna, and still they want things, but they are coming to God for it. So, a jnana mishra is primarily in terms of their initial motivation in approaching God. And depending on how much, generally, when people start searching for the absolute truth, especially from the intellectual conception, there is a default tendency to go towards a conception of oneness.
Because the idea is, there is so much variety in this world and the glitter of this world is deceptive. There must be some underlying truth beyond it. So, whether it is in the east or in the west, intellectual people have usually conceived some kind of oneness.
Now, after that conception of oneness, when they come to the transcendental one supreme being, then the progress from the oneness to the one supreme, that may take some time. And during that time, the impersonal contamination that is there, they have to give it up. And that may cause some hesitation in them or that may, basically, that is the mishra of the jnana.
So, by default, more or less, the intellectual tendency is to go towards first causes. Krishna also says that the characteristic of knowledge in the mode of goodness, 18.20, he says, sarva bhuteshu ye nainam ye naikam bhavam avyamikshate avibhaktam vibhakteshu taj jnanam viddhi sattvikam. Generally, one who sees the one imperishable spirit in all living beings and thus sees the oneness amidst the underlying diversity, avibhaktam vibhakteshu, that is knowledge in the mode of goodness.
So, we can safely assume that the jnanis will have some conception of oneness. That is unlikely to be offensive Mayavada. It is more of ignorant or innocent Brahmavada.
And that’s what we see in the case of Shukadeva Swami and Kumaras also. So, the slight conception of impersonalism, that is usually the default intellectual mode of approaching first things, approaching whatever is the absolute truth. That is the jnanamishra.
And that’s why if we see Vasudeva Sarvamiti, that when they understand that maam prapadyate, so it’s a very categorical conviction of the supremacy of the absolute, of the personality of Godhead. Maam prapadyate they are saying, Krishna says over there. So, that progress from the slight jnanamishra of the impersonal conception to the kevala bhakti, that is how the jnanis go from jnani to jnanavan.
And initial stage, because they have very little material desires, so when they connect with Krishna also, at that time they are ekabhaktir. Now, Narada Muni is not the appropriate example for this. But just to illustrate the point, Narada as a boy in his previous life, he had already renounced everything.
You know, he had, even when his mother had died, at that time he had stayed fixed in his devotion and for a 5 or 6, 5 year old boy to go to jungle and to just sit and meditate. Dhruva at least got some guidance from someone, first his mother and then Narada Muni. Narada got no such guidance from anyone.
But even after doing all that, when he meditated and got a glimpse of the Lord, the Lord after told him, you are not yet pure enough to see me again. That means even if there are no material contaminations, there may be some substantial journey required. No major or gross material contaminations.
A substantial journey may be required before one can get to the level of perceiving the personality of Godhead. So, that initial mode of, so then those who are coming from just a largely a Jnani perspective, they will definitely be having some impersonal conceptions and that is the Jnana Mishra contamination. The Eka Bhakti aspect is primarily that when they start practicing transcendental life, they do it with serious devotion.
When they, serious devotion. Serious devotion doesn’t have to be the same as pure devotion. Even the impersonalists practice devotion seriously.
In the sense that we have the example of the person who accompanied Gopal Bhatta Goswami to Jagannath Puri, Ramdas Biswas. He was constantly chanting the names of Ram. He was constantly chanting.
So, in one sense, he was practicing serious devotion. And even impersonalists, when they consider Bhakti as Sadhana to Mukti, even then they practice Bhakti quite seriously. They also follow strict rules of worship and they are in their own way quite devoted.
So, it is that Eka Bhakti means they are not distracted to material things. They are focused on the absolute truth. But at that point, they may not have realized that Krishna is not just the tool for going to absolute truth.
Krishna is not just the conception of Krishna or meditation on Krishna. Devotion to Krishna is not a tool. It is actually in the spiritual journey.
He is the goal of the spiritual journey. So, that the Eka Bhakti is not Kevala Bhakti. It is more of serious devotion in terms of not being distracted to material objects.
But the pure devotion means they go beyond even the impersonal conception. And Vasudeva is Sarvamiti. There is nothing beyond Vasudeva.
He is the complete absolute truth. That is where they come to Kevala Bhakti. So, impersonalists also, Krishna also says, And then he says, after that, they gradually come to the level of realizing Brahmanvipratishtam, that I am the support of Brahman.
So, there can be serious practice of Bhakti without necessarily the practice of Bhakti being pure in terms of the complete devotion to Krishna as the highest absolute truth. So, that’s my understanding of Eka Bhakti over there.