How Illumined Souls Live in the World -   Swami Yatiswarananda

Intellectual Knowledge and Spiritual Illumination

Illumined souls are those whose consciousness has been lighted up by the self-effulgent light of Truth, the Supreme Divine Reality, called variously God, Brahman, Jehovah, Allah. We must, however, clearly distinguish between mere theoretical knowledge and the knowledge which follows actual experience. Book-learning is often mistaken for the highest knowledge, but intellectual knowledge about the ultimate Reality is totally different from Its direct realization. There is a world of difference between the man of realization and the mere intellectual. While the former is one who is "free from imperfections and doubts, with senses controlled, and engaged in the good of all beings,"1 the latter may, as Sri Ramakrishna points out, be no better than the vulture which soars high in the sky but has its gaze only on the charnel-pit below; intellectually he may be dabbling in the highest truths, but his heart may always be set on petty selfish gains.

Hindu teachers always draw a distinction between the two kinds of knowledge – the Para Vidya and the Apara Vidya, the higher and the lower. The lower is the theoretical knowledge of the scriptures and related subjects like phonetics, prosody, grammar, etc. The higher is that knowledge by which the Supreme Spirit is known or realized.

There is a great risk of being lost in this lower knowledge which certainly holds an unending attraction for our superficially inquisitive minds. We would do well to realize its severe limitations. This truth is pointed out by Sri Ramakrishna in a homely parable:

© ‘Adventures in Religious Life’ by Swami Yatiswarananda, published (1985) by Sri Ramakrishna Math, 16, Ramakrishna Math Road, Mylapur, Chennai 600 004. Website: www.sriramakrishnamath.org.

1 The Bhagavad Gita, V:25..

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