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jnaanam and dhyaanam--- difference
B.S.1.1.4.S.B.---
nanu jnaanam naama maanasii kriyaa.
na, vailakshaNyaat-------- veditavyam.
jnaanam (knowledge) is not a mental act, because there is
a difference (between knowledge and meditation). A mental act is seen to
exist where there is an injunction about it, which is independent of the
nature of the thing concerned. dhyaanam
(meditation), is a mental act, because it depends on the will of the
person performing it. For example, to think of a man or woman as fire,
as enjoined in “ O Gautama, man is surely fire” (Ch.up.5.7.1) , or
in “O Gautama, woman is surely fire” (Ch.up.5.8.1) is certainly a
mental act, since it arises from an injunction alone. But the idea of
fire with regard to the well-known fire is not dependent on any
injunction or on the will of any man. (In other words, thinking of one
thing as another, like a linga as
Lord S’iva and worshipping it as such, is meditation and it is a
mental act, because it depends on the will of the worshipper. But
looking at an ordinary stone and seeing it as a stone is knowledge and
is not a mental act, because it does not depend on the will of the
person). While meditation depends on the will of a person, knowledge
depends only on the object concerned and on valid means of knowledge,
such as perception. Meditation is therefore described as purusha-tantra
(dependent on the person), while knowledge is called vastu-tantra
(dependent on the object to be known).
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