Myth about Dry Book Knowledge
10:12:00 PMKrishna RaoIf reading more and more books and dissecting them further and deeper would give us insight into life and the spiritual,then the books and the Pundits would have become realized long ago!
Education or what we are taught in the beginning of life and later the knowledge that we acquire reading and discussing tough books on philosophy and religion will lead us into deep throbbing headache and no sense of realization or happiness or as we say Satchitananda!
Let us see if we have something to back up our claims.
The case of all the saints and holy people that we know about or prophets too will help us understand that. Meerabai,Tulsidas,Kabir,Narsimehta,Tukaram,Saibaba,Ramakrishnaji,Jesus,Buddha,Thomas Aquinas,Mother Theresa,Namdev,Dnyneshwar and the host of such holy beings had very little or no knowledge of the books that we digest today in the name of religion,spiritual and philosophy.
Then what is it that made the difference to them in life and what is it that made them who they are? Was it this knowledge that we talk about or was it something else?
The knowledge that we acquire from the books is called the mundane knowledge or knowledge of this world which will keep us on track with our leanings and not take us there. Just the way we Google places from the maps but we can never experience these places unless and until we actually go there.
The ken which will take us there and help us become a realized being is called Vigyan or Supreme Knowledge.
The stuff that is there in a book which is deemed holy(Gita, Bible,Torah,Zendavesta,Guru Granth Sahib,Gospel Of Ramakrishna,Sai Satcharitra,etc) will only give us dry knowledge or the knowledge of this world but will not take us to that elusive destination called Self Realization!
The above can be illustrated by an example from the life of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
One day when Chaitanya was a young man,he sat in front of a great knowledgeable person and asked him to explain a very difficult text. The person went about expounding it for 3 days at the end of which Chaitanya was showing no sign of understanding. The person got wild on him and asked him what kind of an idiot was he? Chaitanya then told him that the explanation was false.The person got angry and started abusing Chaitanya telling him that the explanation was offered by Shankaracharya so how could it be wrong?
Chaitanya offered the explanation and said that he would expound the same text and went on to expound for the next 50 days in 50 different ways. The person was flabbergasted and was in awe as to how a young man could expound such difficult text in so many correct and precise different ways?
Chaitanya then told him that all the above explanations are correct but that of Shankaracharya were misleading since the seer had done it to mislead the Mayawadis during those times!
Now we come to the crux of the matter. Why did it happen so?
The Guru's explanation is not a text book explanation but that of the truth which is how YOU should understand in reality.
So when we sit in front of the Guru,the explanations of any difficult philosophy is given in a simplistic way for OUR MIND to grasp and it is not the classical explanation from any texts.
So even if we read very difficult texts and grasp the mundane knowledge we will never be able to take the essence of that text till our Guru gives us the CORRECT and Required understanding of it all.
So do not try to become dry knowledgeable by reading huge and complex stuff but go at the feet of your preceptor who will then put the right knowledge in front of you which is absolutely perfect for us.
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