How can one recognize the true Gnani?+

 

R.K- Q: How can one recognize the true Gnani?

Santthosh Kumaar: It is impossible to recognize a Gnani unless one has sharp grasping power. Gnani does not bear any external marks to identify, i.e. separate him from others.

Even friends and family members of a Gnani will not know him as the Gnani. Due to ignorance, people will not be able to recognize a Gnani. Outwardly the Gnani behaves as an ordinary person behaves.

A Gnani talks and jokes like others, but he is not understood as he really is. People may regard him as an exceptional person, but only a few can recognize him as a Gnani

Nirakara:~ One can recognize a Gnani only by his Gnana. Wherever Gnani is present, Gnana comes out like a spring.

Manduka Upanishads: ~It is very difficult to find out who is a Gnani because he bears no external mark. Neither nudity nor the yellow robe has anything to do with him.

Yogis, religious gurus, swamis, sadhus, priests, mythological storytellers, Fakirs, monks, and intellectuals are not Gnanis.

Sage Sankara clearly indicates in Viveka Chudamani (2) that the Knower of the Atman (A Gnani) "bears no outward mark of a holy man" (Stanza 539).

The word “mark” means sitting in ashrams, wearing religious robes, sitting in Samadhi, performing miracles, etc. He lives a normal householder’s life. Only people can recognize a Gnani with his Gnana, not by his appearance.

Gnani has nothing to do with religion and yoga, philosophies, religious Gods, and religious rituals because they all belong to the universe, which is the dualistic illusion or Maya.

Sage Sankara himself said: ~ A Gnani "bears no outward mark of a holy man"

Sage Sankara: ~ "Though I wear these robes of a Sanyasin, it is only for the sake of bread." (Select Works of Sage Sankara" also his commentary on Brihad)

So, Sage Sankara wore a Guru's robe only for the sake of the ignorant. So he was identified as a Guru with paramparas by religious people. For the truth seekers, Sage Sankara is a Brahma Gnani.

Thus, it proves that the religious gurus and yogis are not Gnanis because they identified themselves as holy people.

Thus it proves that Sage Sankara meant, taking sanyasa and wearing the religious robes to earn bread. Sanyasa is not a qualification to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana

A Gnani sees the reality hidden by ignorance as it is in the midst of diversity (illusory universe).

Thus, the above passage proves that all those who wear the sanyasin robes are wearing it for the sake of bread belongs to the religion; they have nothing to do with the Advaitic wisdom or Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

Ashtavakra Samhita: ~ "The man of knowledge (Gnani), though living like an ordinary man, is contrary to him, and only those like him understand his state. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar