Many jnana yogis insist that though people think that the mind is the leader of this yoga and only those who are intellectually oriented can embark of this difficult path of classical yoga, it is actually the Will that inspires one, empowers one from within to tread this particular yogic path of self-realisation, world-realisation and god-realisation. They affirm that this Will is the true leader of this inward journey and without the Will’s strong inspiration the mind can hardly help one to progress.
Now, we may ask: what this Will is. According to the yogis, this Will signifies the Conscious Force of our being. We, in our surface selves, may be unaware of the presence of this Will, but this nevertheless guides us powerfully though secretly.
It is true that the seeking for the ultimate knowledge for the jnana yogis starts with the intellectual quest. But the knowledge that the jnana yogis seek cannot be acquired through the instrumentality of the mind. Mental knowledge is not enough, given the mind’s limitations. The mind must be made to fall silent and cease to function in its normal way. This can be done through meditation. Meditation is thus an indispensable part of jnana yoga and this urge for meditation does not come from the mind but from the Will.
What happens when mind falls silent and stops functioning? Consciousness emerges from within. It knows the true nature of the self. Consciousness is not individual-centred; it is universal. It experiences the One in All and All in One. Common people can hardly realise or even imagine what Consciousness is in its true form. For it is difficult for them to transcend the limitations of individuality and become universal. Jnana yoga avers that this identification with individual self is a false identification because the real Self realised through the jnana yoga can never be individual and it is Cosmic.
When this experience of the true Self comes it sweeps away the cobweb of Ignorance and paves way for the true Knowledge to come and settle. The jnana yogi differentiates the Real World from the Phenomenal World. The Real World is founded on true Consciousness, true Knowledge and true Identification while the Phenomenal World, on the other hand, is founded on Ignorance, the apparent division of the indivisible One-the individual ego separating one from the Universal.
