knowledge and awareness

8/8/2019 Knowledge and Awareness

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Awareness is inner flowering


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Knowledge and Awareness

Knowledge and Awareness Transformation Series Page 2

Awareness theInner Flowering!

Only one question I have to ask you.Have you learned that by learning whichthere no need to learn anything anymorearises? Have you known that by knowing

which all suffering ceases? Have youbeen taught that which cannot be

taught?

This is awareness notknowledge that fulfills life andtakes you to the dimensionless

dimension.


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Knowledge is arrogance awareness ishumility.

nowledge comes through the gate of the mind.It brings with it the seeds of arrogance andego. Because your mind is a human creation, if

you live with human beings the mind is continuouslyfed. They say something, you say something themind goes on learning, it goes on revolving.

Our present day education system is mind andknowledge based. The system makes you capable tolive into the world. However it does not make you ahuman being.

Awareness comes through the door of the heart.Awareness brings with it seeds of bliss and humility.Awareness belongs to the fourth dimension or thedimension beyond the known. Therefore meditationis the way to bring a greater degree of awareness inan individual.

I have taken this opportunity to look into the present system of our education system as well. As a student


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or an educationist, you either spend or help someonego through nearly one third precious years of life inacquiring all that is deemed necessary to plunder intothe outer world of competition, conflict, and duality,where everything is measured in terms of money,efficiency, and speed. After spending nearly 20-25-27years of your youthful life of vigor you are decoratedwith degrees, credits, honors of various kinds andcolors. It is said, ironically, you are now ready to the

world that lies ahead of you.

Have you wondered that after spending nearlyone third of your lifes precious years when youleave the universities to enter the outside worldare you a balanced human being. Are you capableto deal with the unique questions the life poses toyou? Are you blissful deep within? Are fully ready to

means that is inviting you in all its glamour andglitter?

Only one question I have to ask you. Have youlearned that by learning which there no need tolearn anything anymore arises? Have you known

that by knowing which all suffering ceases? Haveyou been taught that which cannot be taught?

I can answer on your behalf. But I leave this for you tointrospect deep within the silence of your being. If theanswer is a capital NO then we need to revisit our

enter the mysterious world, with unique ways and


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systems of education at schools colleges anduniversities.

Certainly, something is grossly missing in youreducation system. And that which is missing is FourthDimension or Dimension of the Being. It isMeditation. Meditation is the missing dimension ineducation.

When we look at ancient systems of education in theeast the universities at Nalanda, Takshila and thesystem of teaching we find something unique. In suchcompanies, the students were prepared inwardly toventure into the life ahead of us.

Let not any hasty conclude that I want the entireeducation system into older one. Remember life doesnot move backward. Life always moves forward. Wisenever lament for that which is not. But certainly learnfrom the wisdom of the past and translate or present the old into new jargons. Each master does this. He isthe link between the past and the present. Like abridge under which life energy flows, he connects thetwo shores.

My purpose of such talks is to bring a new awarenessand deep down a realization that indeed Meditationis the missing dimension in our educationsystem. This realization is the first step for journeyforward into a new horizon.


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Meditation is that link or bridge or the masterwithin that connects the two shores the innerand the outer and in the process prepares you toface the intricate situations that life presents asyou interact in the outer world of objects andbeings.

Meditation transforms knowledge intoawareness. In fact meditation bridges knowledge

and awareness. And without the bridge your lifewill remain simply barren.

I take lore from the Upanishads to explain thisfurther. This is the story of Svetketu.

SVETKETU

In Upanishadic days there was a sage Uddalak whohad a son named Svetketu. Svetketu was sent by hisfather to a gurukul - a family of an enlightenedmaster, to learn. He learned everything that couldpossibly be learned.

He memorized all the Vedas and all the scienceavailable in those days. He became so proficient inthem that he came to be recognized as a great scholar. His fame started spreading all over thecountry. Then there was nothing else to be taught, sothe master said, You have known all that can betaught. Now you can go back.


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Thinking that everything had happened and therewas nothing else remaining. Whatsoever the masterknew, he also knew, and the master had taught himeverything. Svetketu returned home. With great pride and ego, he came back to his father. When hewas entering the village his father, Uddalak, lookedout of the window at his son coming back from themasters place or university. He saw Svetketu walking

very proudly, holding his head in a very egoistic way,and he was looking all around very self-conscious of the fact that he knew.

The father became sad and depressed. He knew thisis not the way of one who really knows, this is not theway of one who has come to know the supremeknowledge. The son entered the house. He wasthinking that his father would be very happy he hadbecome one of the supreme most scholars of thecountry. He was well known and respectedeverywhere but he saw that the father was sad, sohe asked, Why are you sad - Father?

The father enquired:

Only one question I have to ask you. Have youlearned that by learning which there no need tolearn anything anymore arises? Have you knownthat by knowing which all suffering ceases? Haveyou been taught that which cannot be taught?


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The boy also became sad. He said, No. Whatsoever Iknow has been taught to me, and I can teach it toanybody who is ready to learn.

The father said,

Then you go back and ask your master that yoube taught that which cannot be taught.

The boy said, But that is absurd. If it cannot betaught, how can the master teach me?

The father said, That is the art of the master: he canteach you that which cannot be taught. You go back.

He went back. Bowing down to his masters feet, hesaid, My father has sent me for an absolutely absurdthing. Now I dont know where I am and what I amasking you. My father has told me to come back andreturn only when I have learned that which cannot belearned, when I have been taught that which cannot be taught. What is it? What is this? You never told meabout it.

The master said, Unless one inquires, it cannot betold; you never inquired about it. But now you arestarting a totally different journey. And remember, it cannot be taught, so it is very delicate. Only indirectlywill I help you.


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Do one thing: take all the animals of my gurukul there were at least four hundred cows, bulls andother animals and go to the deepest forest possiblewhere nobody ever comes and moves. Live with theseanimals in silence. Do not talk, because these animalscannot understand any language. So remain silent,and when just by reproduction these four hundredanimals have become one thousand, then come back.

It was going to be a long time until four hundredanimals had become one thousand. And he was to gowithout saying anything, without arguing, without asking, What are you telling me to do? Where will it lead?

He was to just live with animals and trees and rocks;not talking, and forgetting the human worldcompletely. Because your mind is a human creation, if you live with human beings the mind is continuouslyfed. They say something, you say something themind goes on learning, it goes on revolving.

So go, the master said, to the hills, and to the forest.Live alone. Do not talk. And there is no use in

thinking, because these animals wont understandeven your thinking. Drop all your scholarship here.

Svetketu followed. He went to the forest and livedwith the animals for many years. For a few daysthoughts remained there in the mind the same


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thoughts repeating themselves again and again. Thenit became boring.

If new thoughts are not felt, then you will becomeaware that the mind is just repetitive, just amechanical repetition; it goes on in a rut. And therewas no way to get new knowledge. With newknowledge the mind is always happy, because thereis something again to grind, something again to work

out; the mechanism goes on moving.

Svetketu became aware . There were four hundredanimals, birds, other wild animals, trees, rocks, riversand streams, but no man and no possibility of anyhuman communication. There was no use in beingvery egoistic, because these animals did not knowwhat type of great scholar this Svetketu was.

They did not consider him at all. They did not look at him with respect, so by and by the pride disappeared,because it was futile and it even looked foolish towalk in a prideful way with the animals.

Even Svetketu started feeling, If I remain egoistic

these animals will laugh at me so what am I doing?Sitting under the trees, sleeping near the streams, byand by his mind became silent.

The story is beautiful. The years passed and his mindbecame so silent that Svetketu completely forgot when he had to return.


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He became so silent that even this idea was not there.The past dropped completely, and with the droppingof the past the future drops, because the future isnothing but a projection of the past just the past reaching into the future.

So he forgot what the master had said, he forgot when he had to return. There was no when andwhere, he was just here and now. He lived in the

moment just like the animals, he became a cow. Thestory says that when the animals became onethousand, they started feeling uncomfortable. Theywere waiting for Svetketu to take them back to theashram and he had forgotten, so one day the cowsdecided to speak to Svetketu and they said:

Now it is time enough, and we remember that themaster had said that you must come back when theanimals became one thousand, and you havecompletely forgotten. Now is the time and we must goback. We have become one thousand.

So Svetketu went back with the animals. The masterlooked from the door of his hut at Svetketu coming

with one thousand animals, and he said to his otherdisciples, Look, one thousand and one animals arecoming.

Svetketu had become such a silent being no ego, noself-consciousness, just moving with the animals asone of them.


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The master came to receive him; the master wasdancing, ecstatic. He embraced Svetketu and he said,Now there is nothing to say to you you havealready known. Why have you come? There is noneed to come now there is nothing to be taught. Youhave already known.

Svetketu said, Just to pay my respects, just to

touch your feet, just to be grateful. It hashappened, and you have taught me that whichcannot be taught.

This is what a master is to do: create a situation inwhich the thing happens. Therefore only indirect effort can be made, indirect help, indirect guidance.

And wherever direct guidance is given, whereveryour mind is taught, it is not religion. It may betheology but not religion; it may be philosophy but not religion.

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