Gita 2.29

Sadhak: "If the Self is so wonderful that even those who see it cannot fully know it, how can anyone claim to be enlightened? Isn't every claim to knowledge of the Self necessarily false?"

Guru: "Enlightenment is not a claim to have 'grasped' the Self as an object. It is the recognition that you ARE the Self—not that you KNOW it. There is a crucial difference. Knowing implies a knower separate from the known. But in Self-realization, that duality collapses. The enlightened one does not say 'I know the Self' as though holding a piece of information. They say 'I AM That'—there is nothing other than Self to know. The 'wonder' remains because even in this recognition, the Self's infinite nature continuously reveals new depths. There is no end to the exploration because there is no boundary to the explored."

Sadhak: "Why does Krishna emphasize that the Self is 'wonderful'? It seems like an unusual word for a philosophical teaching."

Guru: "'Āścarya' (wonder) is precisely the right word because it points to the Self's unique status. Everything else in the world can be categorized, compared, understood in relation to other things. But the Self is sui generis—one of a kind, incomparable. When you encounter something truly incomparable, the only appropriate response is wonder. It is not wonder like amazement at a magic trick, which fades when the trick is explained. It is the permanent wonder of confronting the infinite. The more you know, the more wonderful it becomes. This is why saints and sages, despite decades of realization, still speak of the Self with reverence and awe."

Sadhak: "If no one truly knows the Self even after hearing about it, what is the point of teaching? Why do gurus speak if their words cannot convey the truth?"

Guru: "Words cannot convey the Self directly, but they serve essential functions. They remove obstacles, point toward what cannot be said, and create conditions for direct recognition. When a guru says 'You are not the body, you are awareness,' the words do not give you the Self—you already are the Self. But they may trigger recognition, like someone reminding you of something you had forgotten. Words are like a thorn used to remove another thorn. Both are thrown away once the work is done. The value of teaching is not in transferring knowledge as information but in catalyzing recognition of what is already the case."

Sadhak: "Why do some see, some speak, and some hear, but none truly know? What prevents complete knowledge?"

Guru: "The limitation is inherent in the structure of knowing itself. Knowledge, as we normally use the word, requires a subject-object split: a knower who knows something other than itself. But the Self is not an 'other.' It is the very subjectivity that illuminates all objects. Trying to know the Self as an object is like trying to bite your own teeth or see your own seeing. It is not that the Self is hidden or obscure—it is the most evident thing, presupposed by every experience. The 'not knowing' Krishna speaks of is the inability to objectify, not the absence of awareness. You are always self-aware; you can never be self-ignorant in the deepest sense. The 'not knowing' is the mind's inability to capture what transcends the mind."

Sadhak: "This sounds like intellectual wordplay. What is the practical difference between knowing the Self and not knowing it?"

Guru: "The practical difference is immense. When you take yourself to be a finite, separate, vulnerable entity—the body-mind—you live in fear, desire, and suffering. When you recognize your true nature as infinite, unchanging awareness, fear dissolves because there is nothing that can threaten what you are. Desire transforms because you recognize that fullness is your nature, not something to be acquired. Suffering loses its grip because you see that what suffers is the passing form, not the eternal witness. This recognition may not be a conceptual grasp, but it is transformative. It is the difference between dreaming you are drowning and waking up to find you are safe in bed."

Sadhak: "How do I move from hearing about the Self to seeing it directly?"

Guru: "First, understand that you are not moving from ignorance to knowledge but removing the veil of misidentification. You already are the Self; you have merely forgotten due to identifying with the body-mind. The practice is not acquisition but remembrance. Meditation stills the mind so that the Self's ever-present nature can shine through. Inquiry questions the assumed identity—'Am I this body? Am I these thoughts?'—until what remains is the irreducible awareness that you are. Study of scriptures and satsang with the wise create clarity and remove doubts. But ultimately, seeing happens by grace—the moment when all seeking drops and you simply ARE what you have been seeking. This cannot be forced, but conditions can be prepared."

Sadhak: "Is the wonder Krishna describes the same as the wonder a child feels at new experiences?"

Guru: "There is a similarity and a difference. A child's wonder is the freshness of experiencing a world that has not yet become familiar. It fades with repetition as things become 'known.' The wonder of the Self never fades because the Self never becomes an object that can be known and filed away. It is the wonder of the infinite, the unbounded, the ever-fresh. Each moment of Self-recognition is as wondrous as the first because there is no accumulation of familiarity. The child's wonder is a reflection of this deeper wonder, a glimpse of what is always available when we stop taking things for granted. Sages are often described as childlike precisely because they have recovered this permanent wonder."

Sadhak: "So even fully realized beings never stop being amazed?"

Guru: "Yes, and this is a beautiful truth. Realization is not the end of the journey but the beginning of infinite exploration. The Self has no boundaries to reach, no edges to find, no limits to exhaust. The realized being lives in continuous revelation, each moment fresh, each experience new even if outwardly repetitive. They are not bored because boredom comes from a mind seeking novelty in objects, and they have discovered the source of all novelty—consciousness itself. Wonder is not an occasional visitor but their permanent address. This is why Krishna says the Self is 'āścarya'—forever wonderful, never fully captured, always transcending whatever is seen, spoken, or heard of it."