Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

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to be born. The ancient seer knew this full well, and left a record of his views on the subject for our guidance. What we have been accustomed to look upon as an historical narrative of Adam's disobedience and punishment is, thus, a recipe for the general complaint of suffering and pain, from which all are anxious to escape. This remedy consists, as has been demonstrated in this chapter, in the realisation of the great formula of faith, the 'aham Brahman asmi' ( I am Brahman) of Vedanta.
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
A word about the nature of the flaming sword and the cherubim that bar man's way to the Tree of Life, and we shall pass on to a consideration of the doctrine of Redemption. The former represents the lower mind, the ego of desires and lusts which it seeks to gratify with sensory stimulus from the external world. As restlessness is a characteristic of this mind on account of its being the seat of desires, it is described as turning in every direction. It should be borne in mind that mind is a clumsy word to be employed for the idea which is intended to be conveyed. The Sanskrit manas is the most appropriate word for expressing the sense. It means that organ which prevents knowledge from being acquired simultaneously, and which acts as a gate-keeper* at a show who lets in only
*The nearest equivalent to manas in English is attention, which limits our perception of things to one at a time only, in other words. which prevents our taking cognizance of things simultaneously. If we study ourselves in the attitude of attention, we shall observe that our senses do not work simultaneously and together, so that when the mind is linked to a particular sense-organ, it ceases to work through the remaining channels of sensation. The same is the case with thinking, which also requires exclusive attention being paid to its object; and even the experiences of pleasure and pain are no exception to this rule. Attention, then, is the instrument of exclusion of knowledge. The soul is like a mirror which reflects all things which exist at the same time; but it is attention which debars us from taking cognizance of them all at once, and confines the percep