In general Knowledge is theoretical or practical understanding
of a subject, situation using experience or education, whereas Wisdom is having
deep understanding of varied things and the power to apply knowledge with judgment
coming out of experience. So this wisdom is dependent on knowledge but how to
define “Knowledge” exactly nobody knows. After so much of logic we will end up
with one’s own belief which is again abstract.
After all logic, reasoning, perception and communication we
are left with nothing but abstract things on which we can debate for a life
time. But there is a point which is definitely to be noted by everyone. For a
set of common species in the gamut of common living environment in broader
sense, the rules of living will be same. So the ideal thing will be, not to
tamper with the ideal living conditions, which is Wisdom. Other than this I don’t
find any meaning for this ideal. May be quotes by great people if analyzed will
be standard operating procedures to achieve the same like Mother quoted Bertrand
Russell which involves Emancipation from personal prejudice.
Then we look at the next one of having an ideal irrespective
of the result. Anybody can definitely spend his life pursuing anything like
Elixir of life or Philosopher’s stone whatever, as long as it is giving the
individual happiness and not tampering other’s happiness even if it is
considered as a waste of energy and time by majority.
Ethics again fall into the category on what the community
defines and this community is formed by like minded individuals for safeguarding
their interests. And now where this generation is heading in this ethical
gamut? Definitely once the threat of God, heaven, hell things are found to be
not happening and one finds individuals who are deriving more physical comforts
disturbing the community and are scot free and treated as heroes, then rules
change. Everyone will run after these heroes and they also want to become one
which mother rightly identified as opportunism and it is an epidemic.
Utopia is an individual’s thought paradise and the idea of “your
utopia” makes perfect sense and not absurd.
As mother said it is definitely true that the essence of life
is to gain wisdom on making this world a happy place for everyone to live in
and if everybody strives in the same direction it is possible also. A person
who is trying to enlighten us in this direction will be the guru/master.
It was never knowledge vs. wisdom. It is the problem where
knowledge is not converting into wisdom. This is where civilizations fail and
crumble and revival is necessitated to reach the ideal. So to strive for ideal/equilibrium
is always the key to this nature.
Regards to Mother for making me write this and I expect her blessings in the form of further comments which pave way in right direction to my thinking pattern.
Regards to Mother for making me write this and I expect her blessings in the form of further comments which pave way in right direction to my thinking pattern.
ఓం అసతోమా సద్గమయా,
తమసోమా జ్యోతిర్గమయా,
మృత్యోర్మా అమృతంగమయా
ఓం శాంతి శాంతి శాంతిః
The meaning is
"O Lord Lead
me from the unreal to the real.
Lead me from the darkness to light.
Lead me from death to immortality.
May there be peace, peace, and perfect peace".
Lead me from the darkness to light.
Lead me from death to immortality.
May there be peace, peace, and perfect peace".
Dear Papa,
ReplyDeleteThis is in answer to your letter about my transgression. Yes, my first rank skipped to the second. You advise that I should think before studying, before answering the papers. Yes, the operating word “think” did make me muse and
these are the results of those musings.
Father, we’ve never really been close and I can’t rightly say, you’ve been my friend, philosopher, guide etc. Yet, I would like you to be aware of my musings. They are very important to me. You are highly educated and you provide very well for the family. But in your departmental store, do you apply Pythagoras Theorem or Newton’s Law of Gravity? For that matter, does your doctor friend? Or your lawyer brother?
Papa, my grandfather speaks of a carefree and beautiful childhood. Of days spent in plucking mangoes and guavas from their “jameen,” of picnics on the banks of the rivers where the men cooked mouth-watering food, of playing marbles and gilli danda. From his talk, it seems, studies were an ancillary subject, and living and experiencing, the major subject. Father, is he fibbing? Or is it possible that the world turned topsy-turvy in just about 70 years?
Papa, my grandmother is semi-illiterate. Yet she is at peace with her pots, pans, her flowers and garden, her Bhagavad Gita and scriptures. My mother, highly qualified, is highly strung, tense and nervy. Do you think, literacy is a harbinger of restlessness, fear, and frustration? Is it Adam and Eve eating of the Tree of knowledge all over again?
Oh Papa, last week, my rose plant almost died. Some pests. I asked my Biology teacher what I should do to save it. And she was cross. She said go ask the guy who keeps gardening things. He’ll tell you. We learn about pesticides but we do not know to use them. Oh father, it matters not to me why the apple does not fall upwards, nor do I care what Archimedes did. What matters to me is that my rose plants remain healthy; when there’s a fuse in my house, I should know to do something about it. I should know to make a desk for myself from my carpenter’s tools. Instead I learn about hypotenuse relational square roots.
Papa, once I asked grandmother how she got; to be so wise. Do you know what she said? By living and experiencing. And she laughed as though I had asked something, which was so obvious. Are we living, Papa? Or is life bypassing us? What I fear is that if I were to meet Newton face to face, I would fail to recognize him, so busy am I learning about him. You know just like the boy, Vinu, in that award winning film. He prattles on – The Hibiscus is red – a hundred times, but in his book he colors it yellow. Are we missing out on the essence of life? –Papa, that’s what happens in my craft and drawing class. My imagination wants to soar like a rocket to Jupiter and Mars. To traverse new world, new fields.
Anyway, Papa, do you know where I lost that quarter mark that brought about my fall? It was a fill-in-the-blanks.
I held that I was invited to tea and my teacher was adamant that he was invited for tea. A matter of grammer. And, Papa, if he says George Bush is the President of India; it will have to be so. If he says the sun rises in the West, so be it; and if he says the earth is flat, it will be, it will be, my Papa. At least on my answer papers. My first rank is at stake, you see. Still, my dearest Papa, I shall keep your advice in mind and strive not to lose any quarter marks..
As always
Your ever-obedient son
Rahul
P.S: - Your eyes will not see this anguished plea, my father. This was only to lighten my over-burdened hear. It is not all arteries and muscles, it feels too.
BY RAJ KINGER