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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
capable of existing by themselves. Just as fluidity is inconceivable as existing by itself and independently of a liquid or fluid material, so are not existence and consciousness capable of existing apart from beings and things. The fact is that qualities can only inhere in substances, and substances are only bundles of qualities. It is not permissible to make a separation between them in thought. Hence, the moment we make a division between jnâna (the quality of consciousness) and the jnâni (a conscious being, or knower), we deprive the two terms of existence and render them incapable of entering into relations with each other.
Suppose we start from the proposition that jnâna is a separate thing from the jndni. Then either the jnani was ignorant prior to his 'picking up' the quality of jnana, or was a ' knowing being.' If the latter, jnâna adds nothing to his being, and may be ignored. If the former, he was ignorant either by nature or in consequence of being permeated with the quality of ignorance. If we now say that he was ignorant because of his nature, he can never subsequently become illumined; but if we say that his ignorance was the result of the assimilation of the quality of ignorance, he must be considered to be a jndni, in the first instance.
Moreover, jnâna, when separated from the jnâni, can only exist either as a knower or as an object of knowledge. But in the former case, its separation from the jnâni is imaginary; and in the latter, it loses its characteristic and becomes objectified into bodies and relations which constitute knowledge only when they are cognized by a knowing being. Hence, the actual separa
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