|
Main Index
|
| |
| |
|
| |
KNOWLEDGE THE LESS ONE KNOWS.
Looks paradoxical, but only looks paradoxical. It is not. It is a simple fact. The more one pursues knowledge the less one knows. Go to the pundits; they know so much, but look into their eyes -- not even a glimmer, watch them -- not even a gesture of knowing; be with them, and there is nothing, they are hollow, absolutely false, nothing inside, just a painted hollowness, a decorated hollowness, decorated by many scriptures, the words of those who have known, but all borrowed, all dead, and surrounded by these dead words they have almost become dead themselves.
Go to a man of knowledge and you will taste dust around him. He may look very very old and ancient, almost in the grave, but you will not find the freshness that is part of life. You will not see a living river in him, flowing, moving always into the unknown. Knowledge is a limitation, howsoever vast, a limitation still. That's why Socrates says that: When I was young I thought I knew all. When I became a little mature I started suspecting, and then I came to realize, that I don't know that much. When I really became old I realized that I don't know at all.
It happened, the oracle at Delphi declared that: Socrates is the wisest man on earth today. People who heard this came to Socrates and they said: This is a paradox! And we are puzzled! Then who is right? If the oracle is right then you are wrong, if you are right then the oracle is wrong, and neither can be wrong. We believe in you, we have known you, we have been around you, we have felt you that you must be true; whatsoever you say cannot be a lie. But the oracle, the divine oracle, it has never been found telling lies. All that has been predicted by the Delphic oracle has always been found true; so we are in a fix, you help us. You say you don't know anything, in fact you say that you know only one thing -- that you know nothing, and then comes this oracle and says that Socrates is the wisest man on earth.
Socrates said: There must have been some misunderstanding because I know more about myself than anybody can know about me and I tell you again that I know nothing; at the most this much I can
|
|
|
|
| |