What is knowledge?

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

One recalls the second meeting "M" had with Sri Ramakrishna. Thakur had asked him whether his wife was a "gyani". M had replied in the negative as his wife was unlettered. Thakur had then gnawed at his ego with the words, "Oh ! And you are a gyani?".

 

Until then M had equated knowledge with secular education. But when he came to Sri Ramakrishna he realised that "realisation of God" was "gyan"; the rest was all "agyan".

 

Sri Sankaracharya had the foresight to declare the scriptures as a "forest of words" where the seeker could easily get lost. Like Thakur he exhorted men to dive deep within and seek God instead of wasting time by quoting the scriptures at the drop of a hat. One also remembers Thakur admonishing Swami Turyinananda for being so involved in the scriptures that he had no time to visit him. The readers will forever remeber what Thakur had said on that occasion, "What do the scriptures say? That the world is illusory and God is real, isn't it? Or is there anything else?" Turyianandaji realised his mistake. From then on he strived to put into practice the sayings of Thakur.

 

Why is there so much force in what Thakur said? That is because he himself had practiced what he preached. He went beyond the scriptures when he declared that both the world as well as God was real; because the world too was made of consciousness, because God himself had become the world. Thakur was not just a gyani, he was a vigyani - one who had transcended knowledge to attain wisdom. If on attaining knowledge one gains satisfaction, on attaining wisdom one experiences divine bliss.

 

So true knowledge is practicing the truth in our lives, not just reading about it in the scriptures.

 

Love & Regards,

Jagannath.

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