Katham Gyanam? How Knowledge?
कथं ज्ञानमवाप्नोति, कथं मुक्तिर्भविष्यति।
वैराग्य च कथं प्राप्तमेतद ब्रूहि मम प्रभो II
Lord Janaka asked, "How knowledge could be obtained? How Emancipation is possible? How Vairagya can be obtained? Tell me this O my lord". Usually, the easiest thing to us today is knowledge. May be not easier than the flow of information, but surely It is today very easily available. The availability of knowledge is so much that the precious ones, the ordinary ones, get mixed up and people even value less to the timeless knowledge of all times.
How Knowledge? this question is not a question of epistemology. This question is a fundamental question of existence. Is there an authentic way of getting knowledge? One might argue that Authentic experience can lead to authentic knowledge. Is authentic experience possible?
Can you distinguish between the experience and the words to describe the experience? Can you experience without thinking about the experience? Can thought cease and purely observation remain? Can your thoughts, for once, just see a flower without labeling them with a word called flower? All experience of the world is inauthentic as the thoughts of the observer corrupt them.
Katham Gyanam? How Knowledge? Katham Anubhavam? How experience? The question remains. A drinker for once experiences the world as it is. His thoughts do not pre-judge the content of the experience.
Why do thoughts not cease to come? Why cannot you stop the flow of your own thoughts? Overtime, Evolution has rendered humans with constantly thinking about survival. Survival makes you insecure. Insecurity about threat to survival keeps a man anxious. Why not, then thoughts take a front position in order to save man from the threat of life.
This threat is sometimes imaginary. When thoughts do not find a reason, they create a reason to be anxious. Katham Gyanam? The question remains.
How knowledge can be obtained? I leave you with this question!
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