Note on Vijnana

[Hemant]

I have a quotation on Vijnana by Sri Aurobindo which may be interesting for some.
        " What then is this gnosis(Vijnana) and how can we describe it? Two opposite errors have to be avoided, two misconceptions which disfigure opposite sides of the truth of gnosis. one error of intellect bound thinkers takes Vijnana as synonymous with the other Indian term buddhi and buddhi  as synonymous with reason, the discerning intellect, the logical intelligence. The systems that accept this significance, pass at once from a plane of pure intellect to a plane of pure spirit.No intermedite power is recognised, no diviner action of knowledge than the pure reason is admitted; the limited human means for fixing truth is taken as the highest possible dynamics of consciousness, its topmost force and original movement. An opposite error, a misconception of the mystics identifies Vijnana with the consciousness with the Infinite free from all ideation or else ideation packed into one essence of thought, lost to other dynamic action in the single and invariable idea of the One. This is the caitanyaghana of the Upanishad and is one movement or rather on thread of the many-aspected movement of the gnosis. The gnosis, the Vijnana, is not only this concentrated consciousness of the infinite Essence; it is also at the same time an infinite knowledge of the myriad play of the Infinite. It contains all ideation(not mental but supramental), but it is not limited by ideation for it far exceeds all ideative movement. Nor is the gnostic ideation in its character an intellectual thinking ...."
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