Who is Truly Knowledgeable?
There are two types of people in this world: those who are knowledgeable and those who are not. Those who understand are very few whereas those who do not are in the majority. Why? Because everyone considers themselves knowledgeable. But such a belief is actually the first sign of ignorance. It is said that the person who considers himself to be the body is ignorant, and that it is this belief which is responsible for our suffering. And who is considered knowledgeable? A person who considers himself to be the soul. Apart from this soul, there are only two other eternal entities: the world and God. The question is: which of these two belongs to you? The one who understands this correctly — and believes it wholeheartedly — is genuinely knowledgeable.
We all know that we want to be happy. We want peace and we want happiness, and no one wants misery or suffering. But which of these two eternal entities possesses the happiness we seek? This must be deeply understood. Our practical experience is that this world is not related to us. How do we know? Because we receive happiness from an object or person that causes someone else unhappiness. If that object or person was the true source of happiness, everyone would experience happiness from it. A drinker experiences happiness just hearing the word wine, whereas a priest feels insulted. If there was happiness in alcohol, then everyone, including that priest, would experience it. The question now arises, from what or whom could everyone experience happiness, and that too, all the time and in the same way?
Everyone experiences suffering by seeing someone with more than them. By seeing those who have less, we forget our own plight and feel happiness. Although there are those ahead of us and those behind us, everyone experiences suffering. Even the object we experience happiness from will also cause us to experience sorrow. If there was true happiness in our relationships, for example, we would constantly experience it. But our own experience is that this happiness steadily decreases over time. This is true of everything that gives us happiness in the world. We need to think very deeply about the nature of this world. We have hugged our loved one’s thousands of times, but there has always been a difference in the feeling of happiness from person to person, and there have been times when we felt so adverse that we did not even want to look in their direction!
If we accept that there is no true happiness in this world it therefore means that it must be in God because there is no third eternal entity. This understanding must be entrenched in your mind. Our situation till date is like a dog that runs to a man offering him a piece of bread. When the dog sits before him, the man strikes him with a stick. The dog howls in pain and runs away, angrily looking back at the man from a distance. But when that man holds out another piece of bread, the dog thinks, “Never mind, he is giving me something to eat.” He runs back wagging his tail, and the man hits him again. Similarly, when we have problems with our relatives, we feel emotionally detached from them. Then after some time, we feel attached again. If someone thinks deeply about this, he will realise that there is no true everlasting happiness in this world.
We are a soul and what belongs to the soul is God. What belongs to the body is this world. Because we are a part of God, our happiness lies in Him. This world is meant for the maintenance of the body. Even if someone intends to meditate on God for twenty-four hours, he will still feel hungry and need to eat, will he not? The body requires the same elements it comprises to function properly. The body was created from material elements in the mother’s womb, and God created this world out of the same elements to support its functioning. This needs to be continuously understood. We believe our worldly father to be our true father, but we should not feel that the father of our body is the father of our soul. The father of the soul is God.
Do not believe that what gives happiness to your body also gives happiness to the soul. This is deception. The soul’s happiness is found only in God. Just this much needs to be understood. The essence of all scriptural teachings is just this.
Adapted from an English translation of a discourse delivered in Hindi by:
Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj
14 November 2009
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