Thursday, July 17, 2008

Complacency of Knowledge!!

Knowledge is like an ocean. It can be clearly concluded without much analysis that our knowledge is just like a drop in the ocean. Learning is a continuous process, which excavates the depths of our understanding and worldview. I wonder of the day when we reach a phase of complacency in our lives. Unfortunately reaching that stage would be an implication of our stagnant growth and retarding yearning for more. In other words a complacent satisfaction with present knowledge is the chief bar to the pursuit of knowledge.

In this fast advancing world of politics, power, war, entertainment, sports, love and technology one should strive to search for a moment where there is nothing in excess for us to learn and live. The impeccable fact here is that the more we learn and are mindful of the current affairs, the more lies the weight of accountability on us. I mean you cannot know that your neighbor is dying and do nothing about it. Like the land which sucks up the rain and yields thorns to the one who farmed it, we would turn out to be the unworthy, useless and burnt away lot. This instills a thought whether we should be cognizant of the happenings or not. I opine that we need to be people of stimulus and reaction rather than a dead log of wood. Like a land that absorbs the rain and bears fruit to the one who farmed it!! As it is truly said the great end of life is not knowledge but action.

The right use of knowledge is wisdom. There might be people who have great knowledge but they turn out to be greater fools. So using our knowledge judicially, humanely, lovingly and socially makes you a better human being. If we fail to practice what we preach then we would land nowhere. The right application of knowledge is wisdom. Wisdom would not come knocking at your doorstep but demands to be searched for. So having knowledge differs from being wise. Knowledge speaks but wisdom acts!

Ingestion of the little details of any event leads to more anxiety and apprehension about the future and about the next episode. For some it is a joy to know about new stuff and to venture into versatile fields. For some it is a joy to share the minutest particulars they get to know. Avoiding the situations where you would be the pumpkin in a discourse related to different domains sometimes gets to your nerves. A lover of sports like me may discover something in common with the football fanatics or cricket freaks. This expands the radius of the circle of your knowledge, and ultimately the exchange of ideas and thoughts make you more involved. From then on whether you like it or not you would be sailing on a boat of information and data covering events and the latest buzz.

When you are at the luncheon table or in a cab with your friends or out at an eatery or walking aimlessly on the streets, the best thing you can do is chat with your company. Once you start to follow a serial, a league, a tournament, a reality show or a competition you always end up in interesting conversations with others. Many of our relations are built on all those silly conversations, which strangely end up forming strong roots and bonds. The ingrained witty lines of our friends sometimes crack up the situation to make the atmosphere livelier!

Exchange of information is a beautiful concept in which each one of us is involuntarily a part and parcel of. Its never ending power and never dying significance enthrall me. Early in the morning the news papers and news channels share the latest headlines which when found interesting and buzzing would land up at the breakfast tables, office desks, and women’s gossip zone! Expurgating the actual news, masala is added to it to make it even spicier and by the time the news reaches the last person it would be too spicy to taste! It is ineluctable to say that information does not imply knowledge. On the basis of information, knowledge is built and on the basis on knowledge, wisdom is built. All these three are exclusively distinct and cannot be substituted for the other.

More appealing than knowledge is the feeling of knowledge. It drives you to a high and boosts your confidence. It makes you run the extra mile on the road of cognizance and makes you feel proud. The alarming fact here is man’s memory is volatile and it tends to work like a queue where the old facts drop out eventually as we gather the new. So it is indispensible that we free our brains from the undesirable data. We are drowning in information and craving for knowledge. Nevertheless wanting to know more and extending your boundaries of knowledge is a good practice. This extension makes the unconscious, conscious; the foolish, wise and the poor, rich in terms of knowledge.

The craze for money when replaced by the craze for knowledge would result in a nation of character and integrity. None would be standing on sinking grounds but on solid rocks as their foundations have been laid hard. Rejuvenate those stem cells of knowledge and keep triggering those grey cells frequently so that even unmistakably the feeling of complacency doesn’t creep in and spread like a tumor!

I would like to end with the quote by Socrates “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you have knowledge,
over others, you will have an edge! :D