Jnani

One of the amazing truths about children is their clarity in being sure that they are children. Ask a child ‘who is the greatest?’ the immediate answer will be ‘it is my father’, ‘it is my so and so’. Rarely one finds a child so confident in telling others that he or she is the greatest. That is because they are convinced that they have seen or experienced someone greater or stronger. No child pretends that he or she is the greatest since it is instinctual to have an awareness that he or she is not the greatest.

Hinduism teaches that there are self-realized people and those who are not. The self-realized people are called Jnanis. Jnana is wisdom. Self-realization is the result of wisdom.

In Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna talks about four types of worship rendered to God. One who thinks of God at the time of distress is Aartha. One is after prosperity, power, self and property is the Artha-arthi. The third who yearns for the realization of God, reads scriptures, makes efforts to know God through others. The fourth is the Jnani. He is immersed in the Wisdom of God and looks for God in all possible places. He yearns for nothing.

It is impossible to reach that stage of self-realization where one yearns for nothing anymore unless one feels and experiences himself or herself as a child of God. Being a child of God necessarily brings out the image that God’s arms are around us. It also points to us that God is very near; His Heart is near to us. Let us pray that God continues to be near us, embracing us and taking us closer to His Heart so that we may continue to reflect His goodness and love. Amen.