113. Accepting Situations as They Are

Krishna says, "The Yogi, who is satisfied with jnana and vijnana (jnana-vijnana-triptha-atma), who remains unshaken, who has conquered the senses, to whom a lump of earth, stone and gold are the same, is said to be realised one" (6.8). Understanding awareness, curiosity, knowledge and experience will help us comprehend what Krishna said. Jnana is awareness about self and one is content when one attains it. Vijnana, also called science, can be interpreted as curiosity about things and people. Collection of all these curiosities along with their answers is nothing but the knowledge which is always of the past and is available in books. Curiosity is helpful in the initial stages of the internal journey but has got its limitations. Even science had to content itself with limitations such as uncertainty principles and dualities regarding particles and waves. On the other hand, existence is immutable and in scientific terms, keeps constantly evolving. Curiosity looks for answers, but existence responds with experiences that are unique to each of us and there is no way to share them. Satisfaction in vijnana doesn't mean that all questions are answered instead, it means that one's curiosity has subsided which is nothing but a state of witness -a sakshi or drishta. Essentially, it is accepting things, people and situations as they are without any judgements and expectations which is the state of 'choiceless awareness.' Krishna spoke about being unshaken and conquering senses. When someone praises us, we assume that we deserve each bit of it and get angry with criticism. By realising that praise is a sweet poison and a trap, we can easily start our journey towards transcending the polarities of praise and criticism. We are unshaken when we attain samatva by treating praise, criticism, gold, a lump of earth and rock as the same.