Knowledge and wisdom

If one thinks in terms of the minimum, he has to think of a very simple fact that whatever is given by the world as it undergoes through constant changes is incapable to provide anything that is eternal. Therefore, a man of wisdom always thinks in terms of the eternal entities and believes in discarding the non-eternal for the eternal. This is technically called as ‘nitya, anitya, vasthu, viveka’. Jñāna is a Pali and Sanskrit word which has various nuances of meaning depending on the context. The Simple meaning of the word is knowledge. The knowledge referred to is inseparable from the total experience of reality. In Buddhism, it means pure awareness that is free of conceptual encumbrances, and is contrasted with vijnana, which is a moment of 'divided knowing'. Progression through the ten stages of Jnana, is supposed to lead one to complete enlightenment. In Hinduism it means true knowledge, which is also referred to as Atma Jnana which is frequently translated as self-realisation. As per Hinduism, Jnana means a divine wisdom or total knowledge of everybody, everything, everywhere and every time in the entire cosmos. This wisdom can only be given by God to a qualified human being, so believe the followers of the Dualist Hindu Philosophies, while the Non-dual Hindu Philosophies (eg. Advaita) posit that this knowledge is available to all, and that even the Gods are but illusions. ‘Viveka jnana’ is the basis of any life that creates something for the benefit of oneself and others. Every artist exercises the ‘viveka jnana’ to create a work of art. For ex: a poet is one who makes the clearest discrimination between one word and the other before conjoining them together to express a state of experience which is unique to the poet. In this sense, the skill of writing poetry is nothing but the application of ‘pada viveka’ (the power to discriminate between one word and the other before conjoining them together). In the application of ‘pada viveka’, the poet has to take care of the simple fact that the work or sign that he chooses is the essential one when compared to the other. The sound and silence are to be carefully conjoined, exercising the ‘swara viveka jnana’ (the power to discriminate between one ‘swara’ and the other as well as the silence in between them). So, the sound alone cannot make music. Unfortunately, this fact has often been forgotten by the pop musicians. Sound and silence is essentially blended together to create a music that leads us to a state of sublimity. In any form of art including painting, the artist has to apply the ‘viveka jnana’ carefully. The combination of colours without ‘viveka jnana’ can create a clash of colours but not a painting. This shows a simple fact that anything that is great can be created only by the judicious application of the power of discrimination or ‘viveka jnana’. A great life is not an exception to this general rule. Therefore, a great life is one that is more perfect than a work of art created by the proper application of ‘nitya, anitya, vasthu, viveka’, which is totally absent in a life led by market economy. PS ‘Jñāna’ is knowledge, ‘Viveka’ is power of discrimination and ‘Pada’ means word. ‘Swara’ as used in the context, is one of the seven notes of the scale in Indian Music. The seven notes are shadja, rishabh, gandhar, madhyam, pancham, dhaivat and nishad. The notes Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa Da Ni are shortened form of these ‘swara’s. The first four shortened names are combined together to call this collectively, ‘Sargam’.