Question & Answer sessions with HH Sri Datta Vijayananda Teertha Swamiji – 2015
Knowledge is supreme
Question:
‘Nothing equals Knowledge’, and ‘Knowledge is power’ are two famous statements. Knowledge is great, is the final verdict. When there are so many different subject fields in this world, why is spiritual Knowledge given the highest status? Does this statement hold true even in the present day?
Answer :
“nahi jñānēna sadr̥śam” is not a statement made by me.
Lord Krishna has made this declaration in the Bhagavad Gita. Since they are His words, there is no need for me to comment on them. Knowledge is always supreme. Knowledge is ever sacred. There is no room for any doubt in that regard. The person who has asked this question is aware of it. But doubts arise off and on and so the question has been raised. It is good. When there are so many subject fields, how can it be said that (Self) Knowledge is the highest knowledge? That is the question. That there are so many topics of study is made known to us because of this higher knowledge. If that higher knowledge were absent, even the small pieces of information will remain unknown to us. All other knowledge is trivial compared to the knowledge about one’s Self. It is called Ātma jñāna or Brahma jñāna.
Everyone must strive to attain it. It is personal knowledge.
“svānubhūtyaikamānāya dakṣiṇāmūrtayē namaḥ” is the descriptive praise. He is known only through one’s own experience. Your personal knowledge of your own Self is different from learning about yourself from hearsay. That which gives that personal experience of one’s Self is Knowledge. There is nothing higher than that in this world.
Action that is based on knowledge yields a reward. A hundred people were pouring sand to build a dam across a river. The effort continued for years. Will the sand remain in place? It kept getting washed away. A great soul, a Sadguru arrived there and questioned the motive for their action. They explained that they were pouring sand with a wish to contain the flow of the river. The Guru said, “The effort is worthwhile. But the levee will remain only if you fill gunny bags with sand and place them rather than pouring loose sand, which will get washed away.”
Action based on ignorance is pouring loose sand. Action based on knowledge is filling sacks with sand and placing them strategically.
To this flow called Samsara (worldly life) only Knowledge can construct a dam. There is nothing greater than Self-Knowledge in this world.