“It is known to him to whom it is unknown; he does not know to whom it is known. It is unknown to those who know well, and known to those who do not know”.(Kena.Up. II.3)
There are different classes and grades of people who have views about Brahman. There are those who are opposed to the concept completely. Those are the people ‘whose intelligence is extremely primitive’ (Sankara’s view) They are not taken into consideration. They lack that basic sense of the numinous and the continuous fascination with the mystery of why there is something rather than nothing. High I.Q. is no bar to this obtuseness and may even help as a ‘halo’ effect. ‘How’, they feel, ‘could I be wrong who am so clever’.
There are two sorts of don’t knows being considered. The rare and wonderful are the self realised sages and saints who manifest divinity and do not know it in the way that you would know some sensible object. They do not know their own reality. A curious observation.
Then there is the ignorance of the devotee or sincere aspirant whose faith in the reality of the goal is profound. He is on his way there. “I know and I do not know as well” - how can this be? The contradiction is resolved in a higher synthesis. He may still be at the stage of identifying with the senses, mind and intellect as his Self. Even so freedom is a goal that is espoused as a real one and the presence of a self-realised master as an exemplar inspires. Very often there will be indications to them that they are not deluded in this. The present intuitive view of identity will be eroded over time.
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