Jñāna

Jñāna or gñāna (Devanāgarī: ज्ञान; the pronunciation can be approximated by "dny-ah'-nuh") (Sanskrit: jñāna; Pali: ñana) is the Sanskrit term for knowledge or philosophy.

In Buddhism, it refers to pure awareness that is free of conceptual encumbrances, and is contrasted with vijnana, which is a moment of 'divided knowing'.

In Hinduism it means true knowledge, the knowledge that one's self (atman) is identical with Ultimate Reality Brahman. It is also referred to as Atma Jnana' which is frequently translated as self-realization'.

Jnana Shakti is "the power of intellect, real wisdom, or knowledge".

Jnana yoga is one path (marga) towards moksha (liberation). There are other paths for different temperaments such as Bhakti and Karma Yoga.

As per Hinduism, Jnana means a divine wisdom or total knowledge of everybody, everything, everywhere and every time in the entire cosmos. This wisdom can only be given by God to a qualified human being.

Please, don't delete this - it is more than just knowledge. It comes once in many lifetimes. So leave it here please. This will help you and others to get out of millions of lifetimes / karma / reincarnation. Thank you.

Jnana is knowledge. "One who knows" is jnani. However, of course, only Supreme Personality of Godhead knows everything. So thus path of jnana-yoga is actually speculative and not recommended. Even great philosophers, jnanis like Sokrates have to pass millions of lifetimes by specualative understanding of Absolute Truth (jnana). So this dangerous path is not recommended. However, true knowledge comes down in bona-fide disciplic succesion - from Krsna, to His disciples, and thus this knowledge is here in material world. So there are four vaisnava sampradayas: Bhagavan, Vishnu, Krsna, Narayana, Hari - he gives knowledge, jnana to:

• four Kumaras
• Brahma
• Lakshmi
• Shiva

So there are four sampradayas which transfer knoweldge from spiritual world to material, for conditioned souls, jivaatmas, to let them out of matter. And there is additional sampradaya - from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu - this one includes all the best from other four sampradayas. So, only Bhagavan knows everything. Anyone who is envious to Him becomes impersonlist so-called "jnani" and wastes millions of lifetimes trying to know what is impersonal Brahman. However, one who is better than jnani, - yogi - he knows that Paramatma, Supersoul is in everyone's heart. He is non-envious and is doing meditation on Ksirodakashayi-Vishnu beyond matter. Through that Vishnu comes avataras like Krsna and Rama and others. However, Krsna Himself is source of many avataras, He expands as Mahavishnu, Garbhodakashayi-Vishnus and Ksirodakashayi-Vishnu. This is knowledge (about Vishnu-tattva). Different vaisnava sampradayas describe this differently, but conclusion is that Krsna has 4 more transcendental qualities unlike Narayana who has only 60 of them. So, above karma is jnana, better than jnana is yoga, and better is bhakti. However, anyone who is not bhakta - he is not pure devotee. He can mix his bhakti with karma, jnana and yoga, but that is not pure bhakti. So ideal is to have jnana-sunya-bhakti. To come to stage of pure devotional service may take many lifetimes, so we are warned that karma, jnana and yoga are all can be stumbling blocks for devotee, bhakta. Bhakta wants to become servant of servant of highest Reality in Person (Krsna), but jnana is only knowledge of His impersonal aspect. And even yoga is also only second (middle) stage of realization of Absolute Truth. One who is practicing bhakti properly, all results of karma-misra-bhakti, jnana-misra-bhakti and yoga-misra-bhakti are achieved. Though one shouldn't have material desires. Even yogis fall down from path of self-realization and become envious of Paramatma - so they become impersonalist, jnanis, buddhists (wanting to become Buddha, avatara of Vishnu) and so on. So all pathes like karma, jnana and yoga are unfavorable for pure devotee. But according to level of realization of Absolute Truth there are different classes of souls - karmis, jnanis, yogis, and bhaktas. So, bhaktas are most rare. There are more yogis. Somewhat more jnanis. Even more karmis. And many materialists, atheists, demons etc. So devotees of Krsna are very rare, especially in this material world. In spiritual there are many persons who surpassed level of jnana and they attained liberation of having same bodily features as Vishnu, Bhagavan. So some of them are even demons, asuras who attained this liberation by being killed by Krsna/Vishnu in response to their desire to kill Krsna (which is never possilbe). So neither karma, nor jnana, nor yoga is encouraged. Only bhakti can is the only way to stop sufering of material world. This is duty of soul, jivaatma to be devotee of Supersoul, Paramatma, Vishnu, Bhagavan, Krsna. So if we serve Him indirectly - by asking material benefits (karma), or by thinking of His impersonal effulgence (jnana) or by meditating on Him as Supersoul (yoga) - we waste time, not engaging in bhakti. So there is nothing wrong to become bhakta, devotee of Vishnu. Krsna is very eager to take us to spiritual world. So we shouldn't waste time for jnana, so-called knowledge. Even Vedas cannot describe spiritual world perfectly. This means it is not their purpose. They are prayers which come as realization from spiritual world. We shouldn't make such knowledge as object of our research or specualtion or doubt. We must avoid such persons who misinterpret scriptures.

Here are back-ups from scriptures: "Thus a jñānī is considered superior to a karmī because he at least refrains from the blind activities of sense enjoyment. This is the verdict of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. However, although a jñānī may be liberated from the ignorance of the karmīs, unless he comes to the platform of devotional service he is still considered to be in ignorance (avidyā). Although one may be accepted as a jñānī, or one advanced in knowledge, his knowledge is considered impure because he has no information of devotional service and thus neglects the direct worship of the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

When a jñānī takes to devotional service, he rapidly becomes superior to an ordinary jñānī. Such an advanced person is described as jñāna-vimukta-bhakti-parama. How a jñānī takes to devotional service is mentioned in Bhagavad-gītā (7.19), wherein Kṛṣṇa says: bahūnāḿ janmanām ante jñānavān māḿ prapadyate vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ "After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare." Actually a person is wise when he surrenders unto the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, but such a mahātmā, great soul, is very rare." (The Nectar of Instruction 10) Ref: [1]

Please, leave it here, don't remove. If you can find more back-ups from scriptures - you are welcome. Thank you.

See also

• Jnana yoga, Jnani
• Karma, karmi
• Advaita Vedanta
• Moksha, Mukunda (giver of mukti, liberation - Krsna)
• Mysticism
• Nondual
• Gnosis
• Knowledge
• yoga, Paramatma
• Bhakti, Bhagavan

References

• Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend (ISBN 0-500-51088-1) by Anna Dallapiccola

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