The present age is said to be the age of information. Everywhere we see, there is an explosion of information. Books have been with us for a long time as the storehouses of information and knowledge. Now, there are many more sources like media, social media, videos, blogs and websites. We are depending, more and more, on these alternate sources of information. Students refer to the internet to research their school projects. Working professionals pick up statistics and images from the internet for their office presentations. Housewives watch videos to learn new recipes. People are increasingly getting their information about the happenings in the world through social media.
While it is good to have so many sources of information, we need to be cautious while using this information. Often, people have a belief that any knowledge is good, so having more and more of it must be good too. This is not always correct. It is said that famous German composer Richard Wagner used to ask new pupils if they had learnt music. If they had not, he would accept them, but if they had, he would turn them away unless they agreed to pay double fees; saying that he would have to first make them unlearn the wrong things they had learnt.
Let’s see what Isha Upanishad, commonly referred to as Ishopanishad, has to say about this. Isha Upanishad is one of the shortest Upanishads and is written in the form of a poem. In verse 9, it says:andhamtamahpravisantiye'vidyamupasate | tatobhuyaivatetamoya u vidyayamratah || Into a blind darkness, they enter who follow after the Ignorance, they enter into a greater darkness who devote themselves to the Knowledge alone.
Not all sources of knowledge seek to impart the right knowledge. Not every word spoken or written is true. We must not accept any knowledge blindly. The newer a source of information is; the more unregulated it is, and the greater is the danger of being misled by clever but false assertions. If something doesn’t feel right to us but we feel compelled to accept it because everyone around us is repeating the same thing, we must stand our ground and look for alternate viewpoints.
If we do not critically analyse the knowledge we are absorbing and blindly follow it, we are in danger of being led into a greater darkness than the one who is ignorant. An ignorant person at least knows that he doesn’t know and can easily learn when given a chance but a person with wrong knowledge has to first unlearn the wrong knowledge like Wagner’s disciple and then learn correctly.