A student, arrogant of his knowledge, began to act disdainfully towards his master. The master smiled and told the other students, “He is proud of the extent of his knowledge as a prisoner is proud of the vastness of his prison.”
It requires more wisdom to benefit from advice than to dispense it. You need to be more committed to life than critical of it to derive profit from it. The wise understand that getting on in years only makes us old and not necessarily wise. The realisation that wisdom transforms us, whereas knowledge only fattens us with factual information, is crucial to wise living. To know and not to act on what you know is ignorance. People know how to read printed words and not unprinted wisdom.
Humility and gratitude, not arrogance and pride, are the ornaments of the truly wise. Possession of information is no reason for arrogance. The knowledge that leads to arrogance only creates a prison around the person. One has to look at knowledge with an attitude of prayer and reverence. Such reverentially held knowledge transforms the knower into an awakened soul. The universe lays her secrets bare before the inner eyes of the awakened soul.
Gratitude is nothing but an attitude of indebtedness. Aren’t we indebted to the creator for endowing us with the ability to observe, analyse, organise and interpret facts and phenomena, which underlie all our knowledge? Gratitude transforms knowledge into wisdom. Information should not create arrogance in oneself. Knowledge should be acted upon. If one’s understanding is held in arrogance, then such information is going to blind a person. One’s understanding should be held in openness and gratitude. Such wisdom then awakens an individual. With wisdom, one learns from the universe.
In this context, let us also understand that to be literate is one thing and to be educated is another. To be educated means bringing forth wisdom in oneself that leads to growth. Accent and manners are only external adornments. To be educated is to be able to trigger and sustain inner growth without a rift between knowledge and action. One may give a discourse on the presence of the spark of divinity or God in all human beings and still practise a caste system based on a theory of the superiority of some by birth. Such conflicts between preaching and practice betray inadequate education. It is greater foolishness that despite knowing one does not act on what is known.
Hence the concept of satsang. Be associated with people who have a quest for truth. It is said that one learns the recipe for success only from association with those who are successful. We should learn to derive lessons in wisdom and success from our observation of the practices of the wise and the successful.
Include prayer in your daily life, no matter what your religion is. Prayer is personal, uninterruptible communication with the divine. Not only do you commune with God in your prayer, but you also come face-to-face with yourself as you are.
Prayer is marked by honesty, serenity and solitude. It helps you identify directions of intelligent, informed, action and behaviour. A good book is the distilled essence of a noble mind. Reading amounts to a conference with enlightened minds. Read at least one good book on a topic of your interest every month. A constant engagement with the minds of the wise will help you avoid undesired thoughts and actions. Swami Sukhabodhananda is an international management spiritual & corporate guru