Shree Bhagavaan uvaacha:
param bhooyaha pravakshyaami jnyaanaam jnyaanamuttamam |
yajnyaatvaa munayaha sarve paraam siddhimito gataahaa || 1 ||
Shree Bhagavaan said:
I shall again speak of that highest knowledge which is superior to any other knowledge. Having known this, all the sages, (liberated) from here, have attained the highest accomplishment.
param : highest
bhooyaha : again
pravakshyaami : speak
jnyaanaam : knowledge
jnyaanamuttamam : superior to any knowledge
yajnyaatvaa : having known
munayaha : sages
sarve : all
paraam : highest
siddhim : accomplishment
itaha : here
gataahaa : attained
Shri Krishna described the fundamental ignorance of our true nature in the previous chapter. The supreme self, which is our true nature, mistakenly identifies itself with one body within Prakriti or Maaya and becomes the Purusha. It further gets trapped in Prakriti when it gets enchanted by play of the three gunaas of Prakriti. Shri Krishna uses this chapter to explain the nature of these three gunaas, their characteristics, their effects and their remedy in detail.
This shloka is in the form of "anubandha chatushtaya", the four-fold curriculum covered in a text. It systematically lists the subject matter of the chapter, the student who is qualified to study this chapter, the goal of this chapter and the relationship of the subject to the goal. The subject matter is brahmavidyaa or the knowledge of brahman. One who is a muni, one who has a contemplative mind, is fit to study this chapter. The highest accomplishment one can aspire to - liberation from sorrow - is the goal of this chapter. When we know brahman as our our own self, the goal is attained. This is the prayojanam, the relationship of the subject matter to the goal of this chapter.
Before the topic is begun, however, we notice that Shri Krishna repeats the statement that he has made in earlier chapters about the glory of this knowledge. He does so because knowledge for us usually means academic, professional or any other type of worldly knowledge. It is always knowledge about some person, object, substance, concept, technique, something that can be accessed with the senses and mind. However, the knowledge of the self is that knowledge that reveals what the subject is, what the “I” is. In order to remove this hard conditioning, this deep programming within us, Shri Krishna has to repeat the importance of this knowledge.
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