The Epistemology of Yoga by Swami Krishnananda3
PUBLISHER'SNOTE
This book consists of a series of eighteen lectures that Swami Krishnanandadelivered to the students of the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy from December 1981to February 1982 on epistemology, which is the theory of knowledge, in regard to yoga and the attainment of the Ultimate Reality.The book starts with an analysis of the mind and the means of perception, andexplains why it is impossible for the mind to know the world and why we cannotknow even ourselves, and why this lack of knowledge leaves us in a state of dissatisfaction and sorrow.Then Swamiji tells us how the Yoga and Vedanta philosophies deal with this mostimportant issue and how, though meditation leading to Samadhi, our individualconsciousness realises its true nature as Universal-consciousness, or God-consciousness.
PREFACE
There is a certain duality to the way our life is lived. On the one hand we have aninner quest and, on the other hand, an outward expression and execution of thisquest. Our inner awareness is not adequate for achieving our goal. What follows isturmoil and a lashing of emotions so that, as Sri Swami Krishnananda says, we areterribly dislocated within ourselves.This inner quest leads us in search for knowledge. Does knowledge reside in thesubject or does it reside in the object? Is knowledge a function of the subject’srelating to objects or is it a function of objects’ responses to subjects? Is knowledgerelative and therefore situation dependant? What is the basis or foundation forknowledge? How do we know what we know? How does knowledge arise? From where does it come?There is a constant rush outwards, towards the external; and the more weintermingle with the external, the worse is our entanglement and the more difficultthe extrication therefrom. As a result, we are more in things externally than withinour own selves. This is residing in a world of death, and this is verily the genesis of allsorrow. This sorrow involves the mind so completely that all thinking is distorted or wrecked. Our every process is consumed and committed to this externality—ourmind, our values, our will, our feeling and our reason. The goals of life shift outsideand get defined by the ephemeral. Consequently, the inner persona remainsunattended, inert, while sorrows increase. What is the basis for the knowledge of this sorrow, or our understanding of it? Beforegaining knowledge of things and beings, one needs to gain knowledge about oneself.Epistemology is the getting to know how we get to know, how knowledge takes place,and how the quest for that knowledge arises in us. Does the genesis for theknowledge processing occur based on what the senses perceive? And do the sensesperceive what really is, or only what is perceptible through the multifarious lenses of our psyche?
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