This morning i.e., 11 th may, 2021 (Tuesday), a friend of mine sent the following Sanskrit shlok:
Samagram dukhamayattam Avignaye Dwayasryam
Sukham samagram Vijnanam Vimaleca Pratishtitam
Translation of this shlok: ignorance is at every root of all the desires, diseases of both the body and the mind. Knowledge, the ultimate realisation leads to happiness.
I have no idea in which Indian text this shlok is found because I was given no reference. However, I completely disagree with the writer. The writer of this shlok or aphorism seems to think that ignorance is the root of all disasters and diseases and knowledge leads to happiness. In other word, we are ignorant and as we acquire knowledge, we get happiness. This also means when we are ignorant, we are sad. How can it be possible? The writer of this aphorism has neither defined ignorance nor knowledge!
Each morning when I get up, I realize how ignorant I am. The more I read, the more I am convinced. The more I am convinced, the more I realize how ignorant I am. It is not ignorance that gives us sorrow nor it is knowledge that gives happiness. In my opinion knowledge is progressive revelation of our ignorance. Ignorance cannot be dispelled and knowledge suddenly dawns!
I remember a quotation of Albert Einstein – two things are infinite in the world – The Universe and Human Stupidity and I am not sure about the Universe. A scientist like Albert Einstein can see there could be an end to the universe. He doesn’t agree that the universe is infinite. But he does agree human stupidity is infinite. It is not knowledge that dispels ignorance. What is knowledge but the realization of our stupidity! It is the French philosopher, Voltaire, who said – the more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing. Thus, knowing that we are ignorant is knowledge. It is not dispelling ignorance. Knowledge will not dispel ignorance.
The realization that I am ignorant, it multiplies every day. Every morning, I am more ignorant than what I were. If my ignorance is four yesterday, today my ignorance grows to sixteen. The growth of ignorance is not mathematical addition but arithmetical multiplication i.e., it is not 4+4 but 4×4. During the last half century of my existence, I realized I am more ignorant than what I were. The realization that I am ignorant and the depths of my ignorance are infinite. The more I know, the more I know that I know nothing. To put it differently, the more I know that I know nothing, the more I know that I know nothing.
Hence, I refuse to agree with the above shlok which a friend has forwarded. It is not knowledge that leads to happiness, it is the realization of one’s multiplying ignorance that leads to happiness. Anybody who says the contrary is an ass.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
