113. Accepting ‘As it is’

Krishna says, “The yogi, who is satisfied with jnana and vijnana (jnana-vijnana-tript-atma), who remains unshaken, who has conquered the senses, to whom a lump of earth, stone and gold are the same, is said to be realised one” (6.8). Understanding the meanings of awareness, curiosity, knowledge and experience will help us comprehend what Krishna said.

Jnana is awareness about self, and one is content when one attains it. Vijnana, also called science, can be interpreted as curiosity about things and people. A collection of all these curiosities along with their answers is nothing but the knowledge which is always of the past and is available in books. Curiosity is helpful in the initial stages of the internal journey but has got its limitations. Even science had to accept these limitations such as the principle of uncertainty and dualities regarding particles and waves.

On the other hand, existence keeps constantly evolving. Curiosity looks for answers, but existence responds with situations. Existence gives experiences that are unique to each of us and there is no way to share them. Satisfaction in jnana doesn’t mean that all questions are answered. Instead, it means that one’s curiosity has subsided which is nothing but a state of witness -a sakshi or drishta. Essentially, it is accepting things, people and situations as they are without any judgements and expectations which is the state of ‘choiceless awareness.’

Krishna spoke about being unshaken and conquering the senses. When someone praises us, we assume we deserve every bit of it, but we get angry when criticized. By realising that praise is a sweet poison and a trap, we can easily start our journey towards transcending the polarities of praise and criticism. We are unshaken when we attain samatva by treating feelings like praise and criticism; things like gold, a lump of earth and rock as the same.