Main Index
 
 
Book Name: Early TalksPrevious     Next
 

ABOUT RELIGIOUS THINGS ONLY?

A: Of course, of course. When I say knowledge, I always mean religious, because, really there is no such thing as knowledge which is not religious. Scientific knowledge only means scientific information. There is no scientific knowledge. It is only information -- so, it can be imparted. There is no such thing as scientific knowledge.

SECOND QUESTIONER: BUT IS THERE KNOWLEDGE ALSO IMPARTED BY SOMEBODY?

A: No. If it is imparted then it is not religious. Neither is it religious, nor is it knowledge. One has to know oneself. When it comes through others, it becomes dead. Then it becomes simply information, it is not religion. "Religious" means that which has been experienced, that which is existential, that which has been got through living not through scriptures, not through teachers -- not borrowed, but lived.

Religious knowledge is only knowledge. Why do I say so? Because science can know something about things. When science knows something, it knows something about it. It is always about and about; it is always an acquaintance from the outside. A scientist knowing a flower... he knows something about it! Everything that can be known about it, he knows. He tries to know more and more, but it always remains information. He has not gone into it, he has not become one with the flower. He has not known it from the inside, he has known it from the outside. Knowing from the outside is what I mean by information. Knowing from inside is what I mean by knowledge. And man can know only himself from the inside; everything else will be known from the outside. So only religious knowledge, knowledge which means a knowing of oneself, knowing the true inner reality... such knowledge only is true knowledge, because it knows, it is not information about oneself. But we can gain and cultivate information about ourselves. Then again it becomes non-religious. So, scriptures are not religious. They may be scientific or not scientific, but no scripture can be religious because it can only give information: it can give what Mahavira knows, what Buddha knows. I can know what Buddha knows, but that is not my knowledge.

SECOND

Previous Page (16/189) Next Page
 
Go to page: