Date uploaded in London – 4 August 2024
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Three great saints Sankara, Tirumular and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (RKP) use the Knot to teach us something spiritual.
Here is Sri R K P’s famous quote:
Granthi means knot is Sanskrit
Grantha means book is Sanskrit
Grantha does not always means a holy scripture, but often it comes to mean a granthi or a knot. If a man does not read it with an intense desire to know the truth, and renouncing all vanity, the mere reading of books only gives rise to pedantry, presumption, egotism etc., which will be an encumbrance on his mind like so many knots.
In the kingdom of God, reason, intellect and learning are of no avail. There the dumb speak, the blind see and the deaf hear.
To explain God after merely reading the scriptures is like explaining to a person city of Banaras after seeing it only on map.
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Sankara used the word knot to mean ignorance. Many of us would have experienced a difficult situation where we tried to untie a knot. We would have struggled. If we remember that, the image of knot in the mind or heart will be understood clearly.
समाधिनानेन समस्तवासना
ग्रन्थेर्विनाशोऽखिलकर्मनाशः ।
अन्तर्बहिः सर्वत एव सर्वदा
स्वरूपविस्फूर्तिरयत्नतः स्यात् ॥ ३६३ ॥
samādhinānena samastavāsanā
granthervināśo’khilakarmanāśaḥ |
antarbahiḥ sarvata eva sarvadā
svarūpavisphūrtirayatnataḥ syāt || 363 ||
363. By this Samadhi are destroyed all desires which are like knots, all work is at an end, and inside and out there takes place everywhere and always the spontaneous manifestation of one’s real nature.
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अज्ञानहृदयग्रन्थेर्विनाशो यद्यशेषतः ।
अनिच्छोर्विषयः किं नु प्रवृत्तेः कारणं स्वतः ॥ ४२३ ॥
ajñānahṛdayagranthervināśo yadyaśeṣataḥ |
anicchorviṣayaḥ kiṃ nu pravṛtteḥ kāraṇaṃ svataḥ || 423 ||
423. If the heart’s knot of ignorance is totally destroyed, what natural cause can there be for inducing such a man to selfish action, for he is averse to sense-pleasures?
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देहस्य मोक्षो नो मोक्षो न दण्डस्य कमण्डलोः ।
अविद्याहृदयग्रन्थिमोक्षो मोक्षो यतस्ततः ॥ ५५८ ॥
dehasya mokṣo no mokṣo na daṇḍasya kamaṇḍaloḥ |
avidyāhṛdayagranthimokṣo mokṣo yatastataḥ || 558 ||
558. For the giving up of the body is not Liberation, nor that of the staff(danda) and the water- bowl (Kamandalu); but Liberation consists in the destruction of the heart’s knot which is Nescience (Ignorance).
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Tirumular says,
தன்னை யறிந்திடும் தத்துவ ஞானிகள்
முன்னை வினையின் முடிச்சை யவிழ்பவர்கள்
பின்னை வினையைப் பிடித்து பிசைவர்கள்
சென்னியின் வைத்த சிவனரு ளாலே.
Tattva Jnanis Crush Karma
The Tattva Jnanis realize the Self;
The Gordian knot of Karma Past
They cut asunder;
Future Karmas they seize and crush,
By Grace of Siva,
Whom they hold,
High on their heads.
Tirumular meant problems or effects of Past Karma (in the previous births). Saints can make them ineffective. Or saints can avoid them in the present birth, because they already knew the negative effects it caused iin their previous births
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Greeks also used the word Knot
Gordian knot- proverbial term
Gordian knot, knot that gave its name to a proverbial term for a problem solvable only by bold action. In 333 bc, Alexander the Great, on his march through Anatolia, reached Gordium, the capital of Phrygia. There he was shown the chariot of the ancient founder of the city, Gordius, with its yoke lashed to the pole by means of an intricate knot with its end hidden. According to tradition, this knot was to be untied only by the future conqueror of Asia. In the popular account, probably invented as appropriate to an impetuous warrior, Alexander sliced through the knot with his sword, but, in earlier versions, he found the ends either by cutting into the knot or by drawing out the pole. The phrase “cutting the Gordian knot” has thus come to denote a bold solution to a complicated problem.
or
The “Gordian Knot” is a metaphor for an intractable problem eventually solved by the ability to “think outside the box” to achieve success.
—Subham—
Tags- Knot, Granthi, Grantha, Viveka Chudamani (VC), Ramakrishna, Tirumular, Knotty Problem, Research Notes on VC-31
Tamil and Vedas 