Yesterday, my daughter had a very passionate discussion with my friend, who had come home. She has an interest in hand knitting and was trying to prove that it can be a profitable venture. She was quite vocal and argued quite vehemently. In the evening, I just sat with her and discussed for some time. I asked her what she gained by proving that hand knitting is the best option for earning a livelihood. I asked her whether she had tried to know the perspective of a person who has seen business in his family and has 20 years of experience in the office, and has met almost all kinds of people. I questioned her whether, in a hurry to prove our point, we miss all the potential learning. She understood immediately.
We all know very little. Knowing little is not a problem. Rather, the problem is refusing to learn more. We refuse to learn more for two reasons. First, we are not willing to put in the hard work required to know. Second, we don't know the value of learning. I know many of my classmates who dropped out of school. Some of them dropped out of school because they found it difficult to concentrate on studies. It is easy to play and have fun with friends, but difficult to concentrate on studies. Some of them knew that they had a grocery shop to earn money, and therefore, they found no value in education. For them, the role of education was restricted to employment. Since they had an alternative employment that did not require education, they found education useless.
I have always been and am still curious to know the meaning of life. That's why even after completing CA and civil services, I read hundreds of books on different topics after getting into the job. It was never an effort for me. In fact, not reading the book was an effort for me since my mind is always curious to know the truth. We resent learning when we become too comfortable in our limited frame, and we have no higher aspirations. Especially if that limited frame is approved by society. That's why most people choose an easy path that is approved by society. Marry, have kids, get them educated, save some money for their education, send them to a good university, marry them, play with your grandsons and daughters, and die. Just one "ahuti" in the "Yajna" of the "samsara".
We all vehemently argue in favour of this "cycle of life" because we have been a part of the same, and we carry a self-image of the most intelligent human being. The moment we get to accept our stupidity, we will naturally make efforts to be "intelligent". It's easier to argue vehemently that we are "intelligent" rather than making efforts to be "intelligent". The entire society also supports these arguments. The one who tries to make society aware is either killed or crucified. Anita Moorjani, who had a near-death experience, gives a very good example. Suppose we are in a dark warehouse trying to search what lies inside a cupboard, and the range of the headlight is a few meters, and we can't see beyond that. Our activities are confined to that range. Suddenly, there is a flash of light and we can see the entire warehouse. Now we know how big that warehouse is. Now our understanding of the warehouse can't be limited to that cupboard.
The books and talks by the people who have experienced the vastness of the warehouse of life remind us of the limitations of the cupboard we are busy with. Every time we read one such book, that flash of light makes us realize the vastness of the warehouse. We get back to the cupboard, but that realization about the vastness of the warehouse stays with us. We stop taking pride in being the best in that limited frame. We know that there are so many more frames to explore. Awareness of the "vastness" of the warehouse of life shatters our "stupid belief in our own intelligence," and we start exploring life agnostically. We drop what we have explored and start exploring the new dimensions of life. In the process, we help everybody around explore. When we see people who are not only "stupid" but also "quite convinced about their intelligence" and reject any "ray of light" that can pierce that "inner darkness", we feel helpless to just realize that there are different types of creatures on this Earth, some living in the deepest of the ocean and some flying above the sky.
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