' Jnana '...

"Ignorance conceals the pre-existent Knowledge just as the water plants cover the surface of a pond.

Clear away the plants and you have the water. You don't have to create it; it is already there.

Or take another example — a cataract grows on the eye and prevents a man from seeing: remove the cataract and he sees. Ignorance is the cataract.

*Jnana* (Knowledge) is not something to be attained.

It is eternal and self-existent.

On the other hand, ignorance has a cause and an end.

The root of it is the idea that the devotee is separate from God.

Remove that and what remains is *Jnana*."



Sai Baba of Shirdi
in Arthur Osborne
The Incredible Sai Baba
London: Rider, 1958, p. 26-7