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KNOWLEDE OBSCURING KARMA
edge acquired by interpreting sings; to know through signs is śrutajñāna. Reading is interpreting signs; there are the signs by which we know that a man is angry; a man sneezing, is a sign indicating that there is something the matter with his nervous system.
Subdivision the 3rd is that karma which obscures the form of knowledge known as avadhijñāna. In this form of knowledge the soul or ego comes to know about material objective things and beings without the use of the sense-organs or the mind. It is the next higher form of knowing after śrutajñāna. The karma which obscures this form of knowing is active in nearly all of us. By this means of knowing we become aware of physical things at a distance without going to the place or having the sense-organs in contact with the object. So that, while in London you know what is going on in New York, or in Mars, or on the Sun. But it is only material matters that are known by this means [as distinguished from ideas or thoughts, as referred to in the following or 4th form of knowing]. There is just the following (few rough particulars) given about the kinds of this avadhi-jñāna: (a) The kind which follows you from place to place so that you have this way of knowing in whatever town or place you may be. (b) The kind which is with you only at a certain town or place and nowhere else, so that if you leave that town, you lose this ability to know in this way. (c) The kind which is increasing, so that as time goes on, you are able to more and more know by this means. (d) The kind which decreases every moment, so that as time goes on, you are able less and less to know by this means, until it may disappear. (e) When you have just one flash of knowing in this way during the life, and no more, either before or after. (f) When it comes it stays. You get it and keep it. /
Subdivision the 4th is that karma which obscures the form of knowing called 'manaḥparyavajñāna. It is mind-knowing; you know the other person's mind, what the ideas and the thoughts are. In the avadhi, you may see the mental pictures which the thoughts of the man produce, but you do not know
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