Awareness of God can come through work,
knowledge) control of breath, and devotion.

The mind of man seeks the unknown because the present consciousness is incomplete, conflictual. If we look at the actions of man we can see that he has always been motivated by the acquisition of material, sensorial things. Even when the ego achieves possession it is still unhappy. What is, therefore, the happiness that can make us complete? The task, therefore, is to seek the constant, the absolute, by using discrimination, to understand that the sensorial world is a conflictual world.

The gratification of the senses is characterised by a cyclic ebb and flow, so that even when the ego- being achieves possession it is still unhappy. Avidya works within the world of the relative, the phenomenal, whereas vidya is directed towards the eternally valid. Vidya represents the initiatory tradition of both cast and west, and contains two phases of teaching: Apara, lower or non-supreme knowledge and para, higher or supreme knowledge.

To the first phase (apara) belong the teachings which lead one to Brahman with attributes, or Saguna Brahman To the second phase belongs pure metaphysical teaching which leads to the metaphysical absolute, the Nirguna Brahman, the one without a second.