Page 108 - Journey to Infinity

Ignorance and Knowledge
(Thoughts on the Vedanta, the end portion of the Veda)
One who wants to know the purpose or meaning of knowledge is ignorant. Had he not so much of understanding we would have called him stupid, Moodha, instead of calling him ignorant. ‘Ignorant’ does not mean ‘devoid of knowledge or understanding’ but means ‘devoid of the purpose or meaning of knowledge.’ Such a person alone is fit for obtaining know¬ledge. Just as the hungry have a right to bread, the thirsty to water and the sick to medicine, even so the ignorant have a right to knowledge, which, in fact, is for such persons only. The hungry man is devoid of bread, and not of the knowledge of bread. He certainly has the knowledge. So also the ignorant man has the element of knowledge but there is no knowledge in it.
Knowledge is contemplation, thinking, pure discrimination and nothing else. Differentiating things, demarcating the line of difference, establishing the points of difference or distinction — this alone is knowledge which is the characteristic of the mind. Viveka is discrimination. When the mind rests between two different conditions, thoughts are vibrated in it. The place of thought is within the border of the condition of mixture and difference. Of course the mind thinks, resting on it and in it.
The purpose of the wise man or Jnani is not contemplation, thinking or differentiating alone, but something more. Every work has necessarily some effect or the other. There cannot be any work without result or effect. If a thoughtful man is caught in the meshes of mere words, and does not take any advantage of the result, he is an ignorant man, though, no doubt, he does occupy a higher position among the ignorant. But nevertheless he is away from Knowledge and is devoid of it. We call such knowledge as bookish (or barren) which is tall talk. Reading books, hearing lectures, borrowing others’ opinions, he limits himself in quoting them. He repeats them like a parrot and does not make them as his own. Such knowledge we term as oral knowledge. But the knowledge of that person who understands the purpose of knowledge and makes it his own by experiencing, staying on it for some time and leading a practical life is called knowledge in the real sense. The ideal, the perfection or the ultimate neither is nor can be knowledge. The gnostic always lingers in between — sometimes leaning this way and sometimes that way. One who has a lingering position has no peace of mind. Comparatively speaking it can be said that the stupid who are engaged in action and those who are devoid of the real nature of knowledge are far better than such people.