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And so saying the Mulla jumped into the water and swam ashore.
This "knowing about things," is not of much value in life. To stand before Truth holds some meaning, but to go about acquiring knowledge of Truth is meaningless. Whatever we know about the outside is always relative and never the truth about Truth, for it is not possible to know this way. Once we understand this, we can take out first step towards Truth. If someone comes and tells you that Truth is like this or God is like this -- what can you possibly know except words? And there is nothing in words.
We do not make such mistakes in our day to day life: Take for instance the word "horse." We look it up in the dictionary and it says "it is an animal we ride on" -- but we do not take hold of that word and ride on it! We know that only the horse in the stable can be used for riding. The dictionary horse is a mere word. We never take words on their face value in the ordinary course of things, but in spiritual matters, we have placed our full trust in them.
The word "God" is written in a book and w e bow before that book! It is just like riding the dictionary horse! If our feet happen to touch the holy book, we are filled with remorse. The feet have only touched words and not God. There is nothing in words. Words are mere lines drawn on blank paper. Some even carry the holy scriptures on their head. No scriptures are religious, for they are nothing more than words. We do not take the word for the horse but we have no hesitation in taking the word for God. Then we worship these words, learn them by heart; and by repeating them again and again, we want it to be known that we know!
If a man learns the Geeta by heart, he is supposed to be learned. How is that possible? That, on the contrary, is the mark of a stupid person.
If someone rattles off the Geeta or the Koran, he is looked upon with great respect. What has he got? A mere recording of words. Take away these and he is left with nothing. He has u much God with him as one who repeats the word "horse." If a man has the word "horse" well planted in his mind, that is no reason to believe that the man has a horse! But if someone
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