The knowledge of scriptures brings sense of
accomplishment and happiness but unless our attitudes are flawless and our
conscience as clear as crystal, it will be hard to achieve steadfastness and
peace. How much ever one is well versed in Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita
and even if he has the slokas at his fingertips, he must possess control
over senses, limit his desires and
contemplate on the knowledge he has to attain spiritual progress. Ravana had unmatchable
knowledge, but of what use???
The continuous chain of trials and tribulations of
various degrees and magnitude in life have made a seeker to understand the
meaning and purpose of life. An ignorant person blame either Absolute or his
destiny or even more so his family and friends for all the events. The seeker
utilizing the scriptures tries to get a boost to elevate. But will only
scriptural knowledge help??? Sri Sri Sankara tells that by reading scriptures
alone are not sufficient one has to imbibe their message and translate words into
deeds.
A man wants his young son to learn swimming. He
takes him to the nearby lake to give him lessons on how to swim. He first ties
an inflatable tube to his waist, so that it lets him float. After some days the
boy is familiar with the up thrust got by the arm cycle and leg kick, he learns
about the buoyancy. When the father is confident that the young boy can swim
without the help of swimming tube he
removes it and would let the boy to swim.
An inflatable swimming tube only helps the boy to remain afloat on the
surface of the water; it only assisted him in learning how to swim. Likewise
scriptures help us to get a vision of a vivid account of glory and splendour of
the omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence of the Absolute. But it will be our
own efforts like as in swimming the cycling of arms and kicking of legs, alone
that can us towards spiritual progress.
We have seen many scholars and pundits who have the
only objectives of proving that the philosophy that they follow is superior or
more advanced. Is it necessary to talk about the philosophies which are like
the inflatable swimming tubes in the learning process???
To make the learning boy to float his father used an
inflatable swimming tube, in many places they use the dried un-punctured bottle
gourd, some use thermocole blocks, some use float boards. Now we should
realizes that it is the importance of learning how to swim that is significant,
not the material used to keep us float. No one will ever ask us what type of
material we had used to keep ourselves afloat while we were learning to swim.
Isn’t it???
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