“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
-Daniel J. Boorstin
Kabir – The couplet
बूँद समाई समुन्द में, जानत है सब कोई ।
समुन्द समाये बूँद में, जाने बिराला कोई ॥
transliterated:
boond samai samund mein, jaanat hai sab koi|
samund samaye boond mein, jaane birala koi||
Translation:
When a drop merges into the ocean, everyone understands it |
But when the ocean merges into the drop, seldom does one understand it ||
My understanding:
Our presumption of knowledge is our greatest weakness, our most glaring fault. We (mostly) define our understanding based on our sense of rationality and the input from our five physical senses. So what does not fit into our modes of understanding is mostly discarded as “impossible”, “unreal”, “fantasy” or some other such fancied definition. This despite the fact that all the great inventions known to man would not have happened if the inventor had subscribed to this way of thinking or rationality. If we all still lived under the belief that metal is heavier than air, no planes would ever fly. If we did not believe in energy we could not touch, feel or see, we would have no electricity.
And yet, we still continue to deny the existence of the soul, our innate metaphysical abilities, or the teachings of the old books.
That we cannot see the ocean of the this world’s students merge into the single consciousness of the single teacher is the loss of the student – for the master will patiently continue to teach, and wait for the student to learn to truly still the physical senses so the student begins to see.
Until then….