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- Info
Slokas 42,43 & 44
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| The dull-witted, whose minds are full of desires, who regard heaven as
their highest goal, who are enamoured of the panegyric statements in the
Vedas and assert that there is nothing else (higher than this), speak familiar
flowery words about numerous kinds of rites (prescribed by the Vedas) producing
birth, actions and their results, as the means to enjoyment and power. Those
who are attached to enjoyment and power, and whose minds are carried away
by these (flowery words) do not attain one-pointed determination leading
to concentration on the Lord. |
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Scholarship and wisdom are not one and
the same. A scholar is but a pundit without any wisdom. And Jnani is wise,
sometimes, without being a scholar. All bookish knowledge is scholarship.
There is no guarantee that scholarship will certainly lead to wisdom. Nor
is there a certainty that a scholar will blossom as wise person. Scholars
may be large in number, almost in every country and age. But wise ones are
rare, here and there, now and then. They are born to guide mankind. Sri
Ramana and Sri Ramakrishna are Jnanis. Adi Sankara is both a scholar and
Jnani. It is wisdom and not scholarship that keeps us always calm and tranquil,
serene and sober, peaceful and blissful. It keeps us above want. So it is
better to be wise, if we are to choose between the two.
A scholar may not be able to realise the Self. He sometimes
may not be in a position to save himself for want of worldly wisdom, leave
alone the spiritual wisdom to remain sober. Scholars often make fun of the
ignorant masses. They look down upon the people like the illiterate boatman
for their ignorance of the scriptural texts. But when the boat is caught
in a tempest, it is the boatman that can swim to safety not the scholars.
They cannot save themselves, nor can they witness calmly their own end.
Also, the scholars, like the eagles soar high in the skies,
the skies of intellectual exercises and pursuits with their eyes always
on the worldly profits and pleasures. The eagle no doubt goes up; but with
its eyes always on the carcass beneath.
Scholarship should pave the way to wisdom and spirituality.
It should not be encashed for bodily comfort or fame. It is meant for self-dedication,
not self-assertion. |
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