Page:The Gospel of Râmakrishna.djvu/301

 delightful a state ?" The man replied : "Oh! It was only a dream. What does it matter?" The wood-cutter said: "Get away, you fool! You do not understand that my being a king was as real as my wood-cutting. If it be true that I am a wood-cutter, then it is equally true that I was a king." Jnana is to know the Atman through the path of discrimination: "Not this, not this." When

this discrimination leads to Samadhi, then the Atman can be apprehended. But Vijnana is complete knowledge or realiza- tion. Some have heard of milk, some have seen it, but others have tasted it. So with God. Those who have heard of Him are still in igno- rance; those who have seen Him are Jnanis; but those who have tasted or realized Him are Vijnanis. After seeing God, when one makes acquaintance with Him and realizes Him as the nearest and dearest of all, that is Vijnana. At first it is necessary to discriminate "Not this, not this," that is, God is not the elements of nature, He is not the senses or sense-powers, He is not this mind, not this intellect, not this ego- ism; He is beyond all the categories of nature. To go to the roof, one must climb step by step, leaving one step after another. The staircase