ஞானம் - Wisdom Hari May 19, 2019

Knowledge, Intellect, Intelligence and Wisdom are poles apart from each other, but are often used interchangeably.

Knowledge is information diligently collected, stored and retrieved appropriately. It is just knowing, raw-data perceived through senses, mostly eyes and ears.

Intellect is a step above raw knowledge. It is a faculty of reasoning and understanding objectively. Beyond knowing, the information is understood clearly, interpreted in multiple angles and the person is able to reason several other scenarios based on this understanding.

Most of our education system is totally built around augmenting knowledge and assessing the intellect. Universities produce a large number of distinguished intellects and well-informed individuals year in year out. But none of the modern universities can produce Einsteins and Picassos; Gates and Jobs; Bufett and Bezos.

நீரளவே யாகுமாம் நீராம்பல் தான்கற்ற
நூலளவே யாகுமாம் நுண்ணறிவு - ஔவையார்
(Water lilly cannot grow beyond the depth of the water;
intellect cannot go beyond the knowledge acquired - Avvaiyar)

Intelligence is the ability to apply the knowledge and intellect to tackle obscure situations with ease. Often, it sprouts out when the mind is cornered and it cannot retrieve anything from the memory. Commonly known as presence of mind.

Unlike knowledge and intellect, intelligence cannot be taught, at least directly. When a person is put through certain situations by choice or chance, their intelligence is exhibited, if exists.

Wisdom is whole different ball game. Wisdom is a clairvoyance with a wholistic perspective of anything and everything essential. It can neither be taught, nor innate but a blessing that is instilled upon the fortunate when their consciousness (சித்தம்) ripens. It doesn't grow gradually, but a sudden shift changes a commoner and brings out a completely new wiseman into existence.

Wisdom in current times is used haphazardly as a superlative of intelligence. Genius and Gifted are still intelligence of much higher amplitude, focused and exhibited very rarely.

விஞ்ஞானம் (Genius) - Perceived information that is not readily available for the five senses. Genius in few branches of science. Nicola Tesla, Newton, Copernicus, Ramanujam are some of the விஞ்ஞானி (Genius).

கலைஞானம் (Gifted) - Skill that is not practiced but uncovered from within. Gifted in any form of art. Mozart, Michelangelo, Balamuralikrishna, Michael Jackson are all gifted artists.

Some rare beings like, Leonardo da Vinci are both genius minds and gifted artists. But wisdom is beyond mind and such rare abilities. Wisdom is not settling for anything less. It is to get in par with the creator itself. Hence it is termed as மெய்ஞானம் (truly wise).

மெய்ஞானம் (Wisdom) is complete resonance with all the elements in universe, life forms, cosmos and total dominance over all the 64 art forms (ஆயர்களை 64). Not necessarily exhibited for approval and recognition. Buddha is a மெய்ஞானி (wise), but there is no record of him reciting a poem, singing a song or painting. Socrates, Christ, Thiruvalluvar, thousands of siddhas and rishis are the மெய்ஞானி (real wise). Their identity and influence transcends beyond their bodily form, space and time and is ever existing in the universe.

Wisdom is never self-proclaimed and hence one has to invariably doubt anyone who claims wisdom. It is so conspicuous that it need not be touted. On the contrary, there have been several wisemen who took so much care in hiding their wisdom from the crowd. We are in fortunate times and there are abundant intentions, words and actions of real wisemen around us. It just takes a moment, the right moment, to catch the flame and lighten our lamp.

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Am I Spiritual? Hari May 05, 2019

Spiritual has become a term that denotes the priests, sages, meditators, idol worshipers, wisdom seekers. Every living being, thriving to explore and improve upon any aspect of their life are all spiritual.

Even those who consider themselves spiritual, feel guilty for not being spiritual enough. This is due to the lack of understanding on spirituality. Being spiritual, is not a choice, but absence of all choices. We are driven to do what we do because of these three unconscious choices;

1.) Sensual Gratification - hedonistic craving and consious effort towards gratifying the senses

2.) Identity crisis - yearningly seeking accolades, recognition and bent on proving self-worth to others
3.) Disturbed conscience - engulfed by vindictive attitude

These are the driving factors that drives the engine of society. The varying amplitude of each of these choices drive us seek different things in life. If not for these three things, we'd all be at peace and complete harmony with the existence.

When the hedonistic crave over-powers; we seek wealth. Day in day out, a vast majority is trying to get rich to fulfill their earthly cravings and in the process they also end-up establish an identity, though it wasn't their primary goal.

When one suffers from identity crisis and hedonistic crave equally; they end up seeking fame. A large part of the herd, seek to become famous and attain celebrity status. A negligible minority attain the celebrity status without trying, due to the sheer love and dedication to their art. They don't fall under this crowd, whose crave is bigger than their love for the art.

When identity crisis overpowers; they seek power - Crave to control others, ruling kingdoms (politics) is 99% due to the identity crisis, often a deep scare left by disrespect and rejection. Here identity crisis takes the upper hand and the epicurean attitude is comparatively minimal. Voluptuary is often the resulting byproduct, but not a direct driving force for seeking power. Again a very minuscule  number of people genuinely want to serve and seek to rule, but the existing political structure ensure they don't get to the top with the same attitude. At least their attitude is killed before they make any progress.

Anyone who is driven to punish another life for whatsoever reason, is suffering from disturbed conscience. Conscience is a sheer accumulation from the social surrounding. Disturbed conscience is the result of a person going through either hostile circumstances or unexposed to the nurturing environment. People with disturbed conscience are commonly termed as psychologically ill. They are consciously or unconsciously seeking revenge for a reasons known or unknown. This doesn't have to be as extreme as seen in media. Every time you punish your kid, ask yourself, why did you do it? I'm sure there will be beautiful selfless decorated justifications like; for his good, to teach her a valuable lesson, to ensure they don't suffer in future, etc. Get past all these, and ask yourself genuinely, what triggered it.

Anyone suffering from one or a combination of these syndromes is a sensualist, commonly termed as a practical person in the current times. Society recognizes, cheers and encourages these sensualists to stay on this course and continue contributing to the economy. Lets say the hedonistic crave overpowers you and you seek wealth. Receding from it superficially won't work. Trying to convince yourself "this is a wild goose chase" cannot get you out. It has to ripen and fall off naturally, until then you'll have to run the race.

Until the impermanence of worldly pleasures are soulfully felt, the state of permanent bliss is just a fiction.

Absence of all these syndromes is the spiritual state. It is a transient state for every living being in this world, even for an enlightened master it is absolutely transient. i.e., we all keep switching between sensual and spiritual states everyday. In a dreamless sleep (susupthi), these sensualist things vanish and we are all spiritualists. In deep sleep, our ego (ahamkara) gets recharged and when we wake up, these sensualist syndromes disconnect us from the center again so that we can continue pursuing the same thing in the morning, that tired us out yesterday.

Hence, everyone trying to evolve is a spiritualist. The difference is only in duration and intensity. When one consciously attempt disconnecting from these syndromes, they evolve spiritually. Stronger the bonds with these syndromes, meeker the attempt and slower the progress.

It is wise for a person in sensual state to stay away from the those who are in a spiritual state. In that state, they cannot be of much help to a sensualist, a common man. To connect back to a sensual person, the spiritual has to step down by choosing one of these three sensual syndromes. Until they do so, they can neither entertain nor guide the other.

Only thing we can do is to carve out a small chunk of time in a day and try to experience the deep sleep, consciously. This might develop a new craving for the experience it provides, but it starts eating away the sensual syndromes, even if those are to be fulfilled to help you transcend. Once it takes you past the threshold, the new craving for spiritualism also evaporates, making one really spiritual.

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