What Matters Is Experience, Not Knowledge

2.39 What has been taught to you concerns the wisdom of Sankhya. Now, listen to the wisdom of Yoga.

Having known this, O Partha, you shall cast off the bonds of action.

2.40 There is no wasted effort or dangerous effect from this.

Even a little knowledge of this, even a little practice of Yoga, protects one from great fear.

2.41 O Joy of the Kuru, all you need is single-pointed determination;

Thoughts of the irresolute are many, branched and endless.

2.42 Foolish ones speak a lot, taking pleasure in the eulogizing words of Vedas, O Partha, saying, 'There is nothing else.'

2.43 Men of little knowledge are very much attached to the flowery words of the Vedas that recommend various fruitful activities for elevation to heavenly planets, resulting in good birth, power, and so forth.

Being desirous of sense gratification and opulent life, they say that there is nothing more than this to living.

2.44 Those whose minds are diverted by such teachings and who cling to joy and mere devotion,

Are not determined or resolute and are not fit for steady meditation and samadhi.

2.45 O Arjuna! Be you above the three attributes that the Vedas deal in; free yourself from the pairs-of-opposites and be always in satva (goodness),

Free from all thoughts of acquisition or preservation and be established in the Self.

2.46 The Sage who has known the Self has little use for the Vedic scriptures as these are like a pool of water in a place that is already in flood.

Krishna begins his teachings of Karma Yoga to Arjuna in these verses. These verses should be read carefully by those who believe solely in scriptural authority, based on their superficial understanding of the meaning of what has been said.

Krishna unequivocally says here, 'Forget the Vedas.'

He says, 'All the knowledge contained in the Vedas is of as much use as water in a flood to one who has realized himself. Vedas is self-limiting; it concerns the three attributes, satva, rajas and tamas, the attributes of calmness, aggressive action and lazy inaction. The time has come now to move beyond these attributes; at least move from rajas into the state of satva, calmness.'

'Do not quote to Me what the scriptures say,' Krishna says. He continues, 'Do not tell me about what you should do and should not do in this life through rituals and practices that will please the deities and ancestors so that you will benefit materially in this life and spiritually in some after life. All this is for people with limited understanding of their own Self, people who have not experienced the Truth. These are the people who still hanker after fulfilling sensual pleasures and name and fame.'

'Move beyond them to the single pointed determination of Yoga that I shall teach you,' Krishna says, 'and be installed in a state where you are no longer concerned about creation, preservation and destruction. You will be beyond these and reach the state of the Parabrahman.'

Only a Master, the Master of the universe, the Jagat Guru, can say such things and get away with it. Krishna's authority as He speaks these words is compelling. He is casting away the divinely transmitted scriptures, the Vedas, to instill truth in the mind of Arjuna.

It is the truth as spoken by the Divine who Himself has all the knowledge contained in the Vedas.

Vedas, the collection of knowledge as experienced by the great sages, the rishis, was conveyed for generations by word of mouth and was referred to as sruti, transmitted to the ear. This knowledge was really experiential knowledge. The real meaning of the sruti is that it was heard internally, not by expression. The moment an experience is expressed, it is no longer the truth of that experience.

All great Masters, the enlightened ones have had the same experience of nithyananda – eternal bliss. However, each expressed it differently. Mahavira went without clothes. Buddha taught very differently from Mahavira. Both were princes from the same period. The truth of one Master is not and cannot be the same as that of another Master.

As the Masters shared their experiences through body language and verbal language with close disciples, different interpretations arose. Vedanta, Sankhya, Mimamsa and such other philosophical paths had their origins from the Vedas, as learned men over generations contemplated upon these truths and added their own learning and sometimes their experiences.

Sankhya philosophy is about the apparent duality, Purusha, the static male principle, and Prakriti, the active female principle. Though Sankhya accepts that one cannot exist without the other, the two are deemed separate. Kapila is credited to the author of Sankhya. Vedanta on the other hand, credited for its brilliant exposition and subsequent development by Sankara, is all about nonduality. It says, Brahman or collective consciousness and Atman or individual consciousness are one and the same and what keeps them separate is ignorance, maya.

All these apparent contradictions arise from the superficial understanding of the Vedic knowledge. All the great scriptures, Vedas, Upanishads and Gita*,* exist at different levels of understanding, seven levels, to be precise, depending on the energy level that one dwells in. At the highest level one understands that all that there is, is ONE. There is no experiencer, experienced or experience as separate entities at the highest energy level; ALL is ONE.

Krishna refers to that truth here in these verses, the truth of the highest energy. 'Do not be carried away by the apparent ritualistic approach of the Vedas as propounded by half learned scholars,' the Master says, 'go beyond; go beyond duality. All these seem to bring joy but it is transient; that joy is the brief intermission between periods of sorrow. Go beyond and seek the firm truth of the ONE, the union, that is yoga,' He says to Arjuna.

'There is something beyond these superficial understandings,' Krishna says, 'that will take you beyond the three human attributes of satva (calmness), rajas (active action) and tamas (passive inaction) and into liberation arising out of true understanding. At that stage you will be beyond creation, preservation and destruction, as these would have no meaning in the understanding of the permanence of the ultimate energy.'

Krishna finally says, 'Once you understand and realize the Brahman, all the knowledge of the Vedas that you quote so passionately, will be of as much relevance to you as a lake in the midst of an ocean.'

Krishna is leading Arjuna step by step as if teaching a baby to walk. One by one the Master demolishes Arjuna's arguments and fears, dispelling his dilemma.

These first baby steps address Arjuna's intellect, for that's all Arjuna was using till then. Krishna shows Arjuna how inadequate and meaningless his intellectual knowledge is. It is all borrowed with no experiential backing. He now seeks to lead him into experiential knowledge.