Via Salutis’

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

‘Via Salutis’
Though Brahma-Jnana is the final means of liberation, there must be a ‘Via salutis’ for it.
Study of the Vedas, sacrifice, charity, austerity and desirelessness are the ways in which Brahmanas
seek to know the Brahman. In Kena Upanishad, austerity, self-restraint, Karma and
Veda-Vedangas are said to be the foundation of Brahma-Vidya. All the same, sacrifices and charity
cannot by themselves lead to knowledge of the Brahman. Yajnavalkya contemptuously remarks,
“What are sacrifices after all but beasts”, i.e., slaughter of beasts. Sacrifices can only take one to the
world of Manes. As the Mundaka says, they are fools who think that Vedic sacrifices and charitable
works like digging of tanks, etc., bring about the good. That is why King Janasruti, though very
charitable and munificent, had yet to sit at the feet of a poor peripatetic to learn about the Brahman.
Similarly, though austerity or Tapas leads to knowledge, by itself it cannot reveal the
Brahman. The Chhandogya says that Yajna, Adhyayana and Dana, which form the first step of
Dharma, Tapas the second step, and Brahmacharya the third step, lead only to the Punyaloka and
not to Immortality, which is gained only by him who is firmly established in the Brahman. Even a
thousand years of sacrifice and Tapas cannot lead to Mukti, for that could be had only by
Brahma-Vedanam-knowledge of the Brahman. In short, Vedic study, sacrifices, Dana and Tapas
are the external means to Brahma-Jnana, because they are acts which purify one and make one a fit
recipient of Jnana. The immediate preliminaries to Brahma-Jnana are self-control, quiescence,
withdrawal into oneself, endurance, and concentration. As the Katha Upanishad says, the sinner,
the sensual, the unstable and one who lacks concentration, cannot attain intuition.