Kabir lived in Kashi, a place abounding in
scholars. They believed it was enough to read, to accumulate knowledge
from books. They were well versed in the Vedas, in the Upanishads and
the other scriptures, and they looked upon Kabir as ignorant, as an
illiterate man. In one sense, you can say Kabir was illiterate. If you
consider a scholar as literate, as a well-educated man, then Kabir was
definitely illiterate. But of what value is the scholar’s knowledge? A
scholar will go on and on about the immortality of the soul, but
when death approaches you will find him trembling and weeping and
wailing. All this talk of immortality will crumble into
nothingness because he has not known it..
--Osho -The Great Secret, ch. 2
In Vedic era a Brahmin was a person who had attained Self-
knowledge or Atma Jnana. This was an extremely difficult path of
discipline of body, mind, and intellect, and people irrespective of their birth
or class, who dedicated to such an austere life, were recognized as
Brahmins.
A great example of this tradition (that a person becoming a
Brahmin, rather than born as one) is the case of Vishwamitra, a warrior (Kshatriya),
who became a Brahmin after attaining Atma Jnana or Self-Knowledge.
"By birth, every man is a Shudra (an ignorant person). Through various types of disciplines (samskaras), he becomes a dwija (twice born). Through the studies of scriptures, he becomes a vipra (or a scholar). Through realization of supreme spirit (brahmajnana), he becomes a brahmin."
The belief that people born in Brahmin caste, automatically
become Brahmins, is a much later concept in the very ancient India.
Thus, Brahmin means not caste but one who has attained Atma
Jnana or Brahma Jnana.
People think Gnani is to
refer to a Saint or religious head but the true import of this word Gnani is
one who has realized the fact that the self is not physical but it is the soul
and Soul is the true Self and soul is ultimate truth.
A simple point is that one is a Gnani whose "ego" is totally absent because he is fully aware the consciousness is the true self and he abides in the Soul/ self, which is ultimate reality.
A scholar is proud that he has accumulated so much knowledge; Gnani is humble that he knows no more.
A Gnani has no real teaching, and has nothing new to add to us in the conventional sense. This is because he sees everything as the manifestation of the Consciousness [Self] and there is no difference in their perceptions of the world of forms. To them, the individuals are no different from them. They work on their own way and guide the fellow seekers to move ahead without expecting anything in return.
The one who believes in re-incarnation cannot be Gnani. A Gnani his-self with the consciousness therefore the question of birth, life, death and world does not arise. Gnani don't initiate people into any practice of path, and in fact they exhort people to go beyond the mind. They only prescribe discrimination between the Unreal and the Real.
The Saints and Spiritual teachers may not fit the description of a
Gnani. To compare a religious guru or god men or scriptural scholar as Gnani is
too farfetched.
