Just to hear about knowledge does not mean knowing it. To know it means to accept it, to move according to it, and to live it.
On our spiritual journey, the biggest challenge we face is that we have a superficial understanding of what it is to know something. We can understand information but that does not necessarily mean we have acquired wisdom.
The four levels of ‘knowing’
- The first is the mode of thinking, or ‘knowing that’. We build a belief in knowing information. For example, Paris is the capital of France. In the West, this level of thinking is so dominant that once knowledge is acquired at this level, we feel it is a ‘job done’; we now know. But when that knowledge or information is of a spiritual nature, it is not a ‘job done’. It is not knowing at the level of ‘walking the talk’.
- The second level is the mode of ‘doing,’ that is, knowing through doing, ‘knowing how’. For example, to catch a ball, to cook, to drive a car. In other words, acquiring skills.
- The third is the mode of ‘seeing’, that is, ‘knowing the situation’. For example, to travel by plane, to eat too much, to be criticized. In other words, the realm of experience.
- The fourth is the mode of ‘being’, that is, knowing the self. In other words, knowing who I really am. Coming into full awareness of being a spiritual being. For spiritual progress and understanding, we may believe we are souls, because we have been given that information, and we may know how to behave as if we were the soul and not the body. We may even experience this from time to time, but the journey is to arrive at the full awareness of being the living, conscient, light, and energy driving the body.This means that the way I think, the way I see, the way I understand, and the way I behave are all deeply integrated and fully connected, based on knowledge.True knowledge is filled with love. It is this level of awareness that brings deep transformation and change.True knowledge is filled with love. It is this level of awareness that brings deep transformation and change.
Brahma Kumaris US Headquarters
Global Harmony House in Great Neck, NY is the national headquarters of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization in the United States and, also, the regional headquarters for the Americas and the Caribbean.
Regular activities include the teaching of Raja Yoga Meditation as a way of experiencing peace of mind and a positive approach to life. Opportunities are provided for people from all religious and cultural backgrounds to explore their own spirituality and learn skills of reflection and meditation, which help develop inner calm, clear thinking, and personal well-being.
‘Smrti’, that is our awareness, is like the foot of the intellect. It is where we stand in our experience of reality. The state of mind is based on recollections of the past. My state of being is fundamentally anchored in the memories I have of myself through time. That is where our attention is connected. So, this depends on who we think we are in the world. ‘Smrti’ is the anchor. Our awareness affects the ‘vritti’, our attitude or instincts, and our disposition.
So, our awareness affects the attitude we have as to how we face the world, and those around us. This in turn affects our ‘drshti’ – our vision, or how we look at the world and others. We do not see things as they are but as we are. Depending on how we see what is around us, what follows is ‘krti’, our actions, the work we do, the deeds we perform. All of this is dependent on our ‘smrti’, our fundamental awareness. The result of that is ‘srshti’, or the world, our nature, our own particular universe, within and manifest without.
When we change, the world changes. It is through deeply experiencing the awareness of being a soul, a spiritual being, occupying a physical body, and through which we find expression, that not only our own inner world will change, but also the whole of the world will change. We cultivate this by paying attention to what is going on inside the self. Sorrow comes directly from the wrong awareness – that of being only a body, a role, the false awareness of who I am. Happiness comes from introversion. If we always look within, we will always be happy.
