Swamiji speaking in answer to a devotee’s [inaudible] comment:
From that point of view my dear sir, jnana yoga gives you another alternative to reach the same jnana. Where it says that when man still has desire – desire of what? Of this world. Nothing wrong. Very good. Shruti [revealed wisdom] claps his hands. He says, ‘very good!’ You know what the irony is of the whole thing? They deny [the Divine] Mother but yet they will read the Shruti [invoking her]. They deny Mother, but yet they will read the Shruti to reveal Mother. It’s not Brahman revealing himself. But Mother revealing Brahman.
In the Kena Upanishad, it is [Mother] Parvati who comes and reveals. Mother Shruti is Parvati. She’s all purity. Virgin - ever virgin. She’s married thousands of times but yet she is virgin because her real nature is not touched. Not?...touched. She is virgin. So, this Shruti reveals?...who?...Brahman, Brahman, Brahman.
Here again, it gives it to you, that if you still have [material] desire, it says, what you must do: Do scripture-ordained work. You may desire to live for 100 years. Very good. It’s [the world] a wonderful place. What is wrong? If I have built my house on a rock, a foundation of truth, even if I think it is a fowl-run [humble chicken coop], what does it matter? It will still be safe. Whether I think it’s a palace or something else, but it’s still safe. So, work. You’ve got a lot of hope. You are better, you’re not dry [you have spiritual desire]. Enjoy. Enjoy but according to what the scripture says.
It’s like driving a motor car on the road. It has a to conform to a code [of conduct]. It’s not saying don’t drive the car. It’s saying, ‘drive the motor car, but drive in South Africa, on the left-hand side.’ When you are in America, drive it on the right-hand side. But drive it you must. Otherwise the car will drive you. The car is the mind. If you don’t drive it, it will drive you. So drive it on the real line of dharma, scripture-ordained, scripture-orientated work. Righteous work. What will happen? Even if it’s thousands of births, you will get purified. And when you get purified, naturally you will come to know what God is.
Therefore, the jnani is, agreed, very highly evolved, but don’t get bluffed. Thinking jnana is not being a jnani. Don’t get bluffed. For thousands of births that fellow must have been following the same thing. I don’t know how many hundreds of births he desired to live a hundred years. Now he’s come and he’s not realising that he took a long, long time to get where he is. He wants everybody to say the world is lies [Maya]. It makes me think about [Jiddu] Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti had a guru to realise the truth, but today he says guru is not necessary. You forget your past. You only think about your?...present.
So that same scripture says, ‘perform work.’ You and I - we should perform work. Who cares if God reveals himself or not? As long as I have the joy to do work for?...God. Do it according to the scripturally-ordained. Now what does it mean, ‘scripturally-ordained’? If you take all the scriptures, all the scriptures will tell you that you must do work in such a way that you do not harm others. And your mind becomes?...purified. In other words, internally you must evolve and at the same time, externally. This is jnana. This is jnana. This is jnana. Otherwise if you take a crawling child and say, ‘Look, I am making you run,’ you will kill [injure] the child and therefore you’ll be doing sin.
From that point of view the Bhagavad Gita says, ‘do not disturb the faith of the ignorant.’ Ignorant is not a bad word. Take the word ‘ignorant’ out. Do not disturb the faith of a man who is trying to know the truth. That’s what is meant. The word ‘ignorant’ is misunderstood most times. Nobody likes to be called ignorant - even an insane person won’t like to be called ignorant and a sane man won’t like to be called ‘mad’.
But a sane man who gets angry is silly. Because he’s supposed to be sane – he’s supposed to be understanding. That’s the meaning of sane-ness [sanity]. One who is understanding. If he gets angry then he’s really mad. Isn’t it so? He’s mad. Drunk with anger. So, remember, jnana is just for the few. Why to bluff? Truthfulness is the first order of spiritual life.