The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita : 16.5. - Swami Krishnananda.

Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF):

The Divine Lakshmi Narayana Puja and Havan 2024🌺

In the serene ambience of the Lalita Vidya Pratishthanam Campus of CVV, the celebration of Makar Sankranti went on through the divine rites of Lakshmi Narayana puja and havan. 

This joyous occasion united the extended families of CVV and CIF, along with the guests who graced the event with their presence.

Guided by the chanting of Vishnusahasranamavali and other sacred slokas led by CVV students, the entire gathering participated in the rhythmic cadence of devotion. 

The yajamans, guests, and sadhakas were warmly invited to chant and offer dravyas to the sacred havan.

In the spirit of unity, a special sankalpa was taken for the universal welfare and the harmonious unfolding of the coming year. 

Bhaktas all over the world witnessed the sacred live stream of the puja on the Chinfo Channel on YouTube.

May the blessings of Lakshmi Narayana light up the lives showering prosperity, peace and abundance🌸

===============================================================

Monday, 22  Jan  2024 07:00. 

Chapter 16: The Supreme Person-5.

===============================================================

It is difficult to know what kind of knowledge it is that we are referring to here. When we speak of knowledge, generally, we are likely to identify it with learning, with the sciences and the arts of the world, with literature, with music, with mathematics, with physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy. These are the types of knowledge we are acquainted with in this world. But these are only names given to mysterious realities that are hidden behind these forms of learning. All learning is only an acquaintance that we try to develop with the forms outside. The things, as they are in themselves, are outside our comprehension, and therefore, our knowledge is a shell rather than a fact. We catch the husk, and call it the wisdom of the world. We have only a phenomenal contact with the outer forms of 'something' which seems to be there, but of which we have no correct grasp, and into which we cannot enter in reality.

Even the formal knowledge we have of the things of the world is not a reliable knowledge. Firstly, we do not have the knowledge of the thing-in-itself. We have only an acquaintance with the form, the name and the complex, or the bundle of relationships of which the external features of an object are composed. But even this acquaintance is, in the end, fallible, because it is conditioned by the structural patterns of our sense organs, the mind and the intellect, and so even this formal knowledge is inadequate. Thus, we can be safely said to have no knowledge at all of anything worth the while. We grope in darkness, in utter ignorance, imagining that we are worldly-wise, but knowing nothing at all. And this is not the knowledge we are speaking of when it is said that knowledge is liberation or freedom of the spirit.

Knowledge is the same as the knowledge of God. Knowledge is being, as such. It is the entry of our true nature into the being of all things. There is the union of the seer and the seen in such a manner that the being of the seer is the same as the being of the seen, and vice versa. God enters us, and we enter God, as the rivers enter the ocean, and the ocean embraces rivers, so that one cannot know which is the river and which is the ocean. Such is the destination of the soul when it reaches the  Purushottama, the Supreme Person above all personalities and forms. Knowing this, one is liberated forever. There is no chance, or trace, of bondage any more.

Chapter - 16. Ends.

===============================================================

Next

Chapter 17: The Play of the Cosmic Powers

To be continued

================================================================