fice of knowledge is
superior to the sacrifice of wealth, for action is wholly and entirely
comprehended in knowledge.... Even if you are the most sinful of all
sinful men, you will cross over all trespasses by means of the boat of
knowledge alone. As a fire well kindled, O Arjuna! reduces fuel to
ashes, so the fire of knowledge reduces all actions to ashes. For
there is in this world no means of sanctification like knowledge, and
that one perfected by devotion finds within one's self in time. He who
has faith, whose senses are restrained, and who is assiduous, obtains
knowledge. Obtaining knowledge he acquires, without delay, the highest
tranquillity.... Therefore, O descendant of Bharata! destroy with the
sword of knowledge these misgivings of yours which fill your mind, and
which are produced from ignorance." "He who is possessed of knowledge,
who is always devoted, and whose worship is addressed to one only, is
esteemed highest. For to the man of knowledge I am dear above all
things, and he is dear to me. All these are noble, but the man
possessed of knowledge is deemed by me to be my own self."

From time immemorial Indian sages have looked upon God as the Supreme
Intelligence; He is the absolute Wisdom, and to know Him or it, and to
know that "I am it" (_Tat twam asi_), this is the highest wisdom
(_Brahma Gnana_), and it gives immediate entrance into the heaven of
beatification or of absorption. And the only sin which such a man, and
which this system of thought, recognizes is the sin of ignorance
(_Avidia_); that is, the folly, or stupidity, of thinking that one's
soul is separate from the divine Soul. To know, under these mundane
conditions of delusion (_Maya_), and while under the tyranny of
passion and of action (_Karma_), that I am, after all, identical with
the divine Spirit, and that the thought of a separate existence is a
snare and a bondage,--this is the immediate shattering of my earthly
bondage and the full entrance of my soul (like a drop of water to its
mother ocean) into the eternal peace and tranquillity (_Sayutcha_) of
the godhead--a state of unconscious calm which shall never after be
disturbed.

Thus the highest way of salvation, as taught by Hindus of all classes,
is the way of knowledge. It is the highest step in the progress of
human redemption. All other ways of salvation are but preliminary, or
stepping-stones, to this. There is no return to the bondage of this
world of Him who has crosse