Vedantham : ( 07/11/2012. )

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-16.  We always have some complaint against everything in the world, because these inward dissatisfactions in the form of our buried personality come out little by little, not at one stroke, to the surface of consciousness as and when circumstances become favourable. If the whole of it comes up, we will cease to be in one second. It will not come. It is like a shopkeeper, who will not show all his goods at once. He has a godown [warehouse] where he keeps all his treasures, and little by little he brings out what is essential to the open market for us to see. He has a retail store, but he has also a wholesale godown which is not visible to the customers, from where he brings out items to display when circumstances demand. In the same way, we have a godown in ourselves where everything is kept inside; but unfortunately, we do not know what is in the godown. It is a very intricate wound-up ab...

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-15. These potencies of what we call the unconscious and the subconscious are the conditioning factors of our present conscious thinking, feeling, reacting, etc. This is the reason why every one of us has one particular view of things. You think in one way and I think in another way about one and the same thing. There are as many philosophies as there are people, and as many viewpoints and standpoints of looking at things as there are individuals, because the way in which the conditioned personality manifests itself in conscious experience depends upon the varieties of circumstances in which the psychophysical personality is placed. This is why every one of us is different – one cannot be like the other – and each one has a peculiar idea of something or the other. All this amounts to saying that none of us can be really happy because there is something hidden inside us which refuses to come to t...

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-14. The kundalini will come up at that time as a rapacious serpent with raised hood. It is now coiled up in an unconscious condition because it is not necessary for it to come to the surface just now. As the reserve force of an army need not be unleashed always and remains quiet except under necessary circumstances, we do not show our strength every day, unless we feel the need for it. We live like a simple, humble person, a very good person. But if we are opposed from every side, we will show our strength physically, mentally, and socially. Likewise is this buried serpent of our real personality, which will not come to the surface. But it will go on giving little pinpricks now and then, and keep us restless – like snakes which are not visible and yet are living inside one's house sometimes show their heads a little bit, and keep us very miserable. Swami Krishnananda To be continue...

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-13. Whatever we are thinking, feeling, seeing and reacting to now is this little peak. This fact is well known to psychologists and psychoanalysts. Our whole personality is a tremendous iceberg which is buried in the ocean of the unconscious, and little of it is on the surface, and so we say we are 'this', we are 'that'. But the total weight of our personality, which is the cause of what we are going to be, will not manifest itself under unfavourable circumstances. Like a seed that is sown on the ground which will sprout only under given conditions and not always, our total personality will not come to the surface of our experience, except under given conditions. All the necessary accompaniments for the coming up of this inner buried treasure should be there. Otherwise, it will lie like a coiled-up serpent. Only if we interfere with it, will it come up. Now, incidentally, ...

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-12. But we are living still; we are not dying at one stroke. A very interesting statement of Buddha, among many other things that he said, is: "A person who really sees through the inner structure of this world will not be able to live here for three minutes." And, in the same way, if we can see through the inner core of things, people, or anything in the world, we will not like to speak one word afterwards. Our mouth will be shut forever, if we have seen to the root of things – whether of people, or of any other thing in the world. The Buddha's statement followed: "The world, to that person who sees the root of things, would appear like a burning pit of live coal." Live coal means hot embers, fire blazing, and we cannot keep our foot on it even for a second. Patanjali also says in his Yoga Sutra: "For an understanding mind, the whole world is misery incarnate....

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-11. He vehemently, inveterately and adamantly sticks to the present condition of what is reported to his senses and particularly to his emotions. There is a necessity to connect the past and the future to what we are at the present. This is almost the beginning of an educational career. If there is nothing to learn, and we know everything already, and our opinion is set, and our outlook of life is permanently settled in our brain, why do we want to go to any school or college? Why should we listen to anybody? Why should we hear; why should we read? Everything is clear to us. "I know all things." What is the problem with us? Why do we run here and there? There is something lurking within us, and telling us: "You are in danger." That danger is not visible. It is not on the surface of our consciousness. It has not come to the level of conscious thinking and, there...

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-10. It is no use fighting with the world, and then imagining that we have understood it thoroughly. Neither can we understand it thoroughly, nor can we fight with it. Perhaps we cannot encounter it in any way, because we cannot understand it. Now, we are actually coming to the point of why we are sitting here at all. Have we no other work? We can go shopping and eat some sweets. What is the point in sitting unnecessarily, wasting time? The point is very important. There is something serious about every one of us; and that we do not know that there is something serious, is a tragedy indeed. Even a sheep which is going to a butcher's shop will sense what its fate is going to be. Due to some vibration which it is able to receive from various corners of that locality, it feels something is wrong, and it bleats and resents and refuses to move. Even sheep have some sensatio...

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-9. "This is what I have seen, this is what I have learned, this is what I have been told, and therefore it should be only like this. It cannot be in any other way. " A kind of egoism – not necessarily adopted deliberately, but automatically arising due to the impression of these old vibrations thrust upon you by factors mentioned – create a circumstance of non-receptivity to any kind of change in outlook. People always resent change in anything. They want to stick to something which is already there. No change is permitted; it is a fearful thing. You do not want to change anything, either outwardly or inwardly, because you get habituated to a particular way of thinking and living; and if this habit of living in a particular way has continued for twenty years, thirty years, forty years, you cannot change your outlook so easily – as you would not like to peel your own skin, and put ...

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-8. There are many other ideologies which impress upon the mind of a small child, and we must remember that although we are now sufficiently grown up, the impressions created on our mind during childhood are still there. They have not gone, and they cannot easily go. These impressions are also caused by the ideologies which the society in which we live holds as pre-eminent. There are cults, creeds, beliefs, religious traditions, rituals, ideas of 'God', ideas of 'no God', and many other things such as even a sociological or political interpretation of life – all which cannot be kept completely outside the area of receptivity of small children. Thus from childhood we are brainwashed in some way by these facts, and this cannot be overlooked in an educational process. Some of you told me, "I cannot understand anything." It is not your fault that you do not understand a...

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-7. We are misguided by various factors in life. It is not that we really want to be misguided, but we sometimes feel we are placed under such circumstances, right from our childhood, that we are automatically misdirected into ruts which go out of the point altogether. The factors which cause or bring about this circumstance are many. As a good educationist or a psychologist would know, the way in which parents live in the house is very important, because we are always seeing them and living with them; and we will certainly imbibe what our parents are, more than what they want us to do. There is also the social atmosphere around – the community. The setup of people in our area is also a great influence upon us. From babyhood onwards, we are under the influence of this atmosphere of the community, or even the township in which we are living; and because a baby's mind is flexible, malleable, s...

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-6. The turmoil of emotions and the over-enthusiasm of youth, which does not listen to any advice, is the result of the power of the sense organs, which take complete possession of our young age; and, therefore, often it appears that no good advice will enter the brain of a young person. Good advice is wasted energy, though there may be means of communicating instruction, knowledge, or true education even at this age, if a proper methodology is adopted. This was one of the points that was realised by ancient masters in India particularly, who were not like professors in our colleges but like parents who felt the necessity to take care of untutored emotions and unlettered understandings. In India, we had the ancient system of teaching called gurukula, which means the system of living under the umbrella and protection of a competent, knowledgeable person. It is necessary to live with that person, ...

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-5. It is not true that the thing is exactly as it is seen with the eyes, etc. This awakening to the fact that the senses are not the true reporters of the facts of life is a real achievement indeed. But very few people are awakened to this fact. We live like animals, if we believe that sensations are the only available sources of knowledge. There is practically no difference between a human being and an animal, if sensation is the instrument of knowing and the supreme judge of anything in the world. Do you believe that generally our judgements are of this type only? Have we any other means of knowing things than our sense organs? We have nothing except these. Again, as I mentioned, we will find that when we are very young children, boyish and juvenile in our enthusiasm, this enthusiasm is precisely due to the strength of the senses. In youth, the senses are very strong and, therefore,...

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-4. This is called a philosophy of sensationalism. The sensation itself is the meaning of life. Whatever the senses tell us, that is the truth, finally. If the skin feels cold, the world is cold; if it feels hot, the world is hot. Immediately we have a readymade opinion from our bags. “It is sweet,” “It is bitter,” the tongue says. At once it reacts and holds an opinion about that which is placed on it – and so on, with every one of our senses. Thus, it appears that we have nothing with us worth the while except our sense organs, if it is true that we are to know, judge, understand, appreciate, and evaluate things only through the sense organs – the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, touch. There is nothing else. But, there must come a time in our life, in everyone's life, when we will be opened up to a new fact altogether – that the world is not made in such a way as it is reported to the sens...

Chapter-2. The Necessity to Understand What Real Knowledge Is : Part-3. This is what we mostly do; we take the world at its face value. If it rains, we say it rains; if it is hot, we say it is hot; if it is cold, we say it is cold. This is just a statement which is superficially in agreement with a phenomenon that is taking place, a phenomenon which agrees with the receptivity of our sense organs like the eyes, ears, and so on. Our senses are our friends. Not merely friends, they are inseparable from us. They are the only instruments we have with which we can know anything. If we see something, we think it is the way we see it. “It should be like this, because I am seeing it.” If we hear something, again we say, “It should be like this, because I have heard it” – and so on. So, a thing should be exactly as it is seen with the eyes, heard with the ears or sensed in any other manner. Swami Krishnananda To be continued   ....