1. U S 85 - 42 KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWINGNESS Gururaj: Well, our old friends and people that have come from Canada Vidya, help me California, St. Louis area, New York, and all that. And, of course, I extend you my love and welcome. And so nice to meet some of the new faces I see around. Good. W hat shall we speak about tonight? Priya: Beloved Gururaj, can you tell us what the difference is between knowledge and knowingness. Gururaj: Hmm. The question to repeat again, is the difference between knowledge and knowingness. Knowledge is an acqui sition which is acquired by study. Right. And you can study all the books in the world, yet it will not bring knowingness at all. Because the knowledge contained in all the various religions of the world and I can quote you Fichte and Liebnitz and Kant and Schopenhauer and Spencer and you name it. But that is not my knowledge. Right. That is someone else's knowledge which I am trying to absorb. What effect does it have on your brain, hm. Does it give you greater understanding, or does it give you gr eater confusion. Because one philosopher will say one thing and another philosopher will say another thing, and when you try and compare the various philosophies or metaphysics of the world, you would become more and more befuddled. Because there are so many contradictions. One said this, the other says that. One goes into dualism while another goes into neo dualism while the third would go into monism. So where do you stand. What are you going to decide upon. And any decision you make upon any philo sophy will be dependent entirely upon your mind; or the patternings of your mind will accept knowledge if you are patterned in a certain way, then that's the knowledge you will accept. If you are patterned in the Hindu tradition or the Buddhist tradition or the Catholic tradition or whatever tradition, then your mind would be reverted in that direction. And reverting the mind in that particular direction limits you. And that is knowledge. So knowledge brings about limitation, it brings about a bondage; but it does not bring about freedom. When it does not bring about freedom and you are so involved in bondage, then you are bound to a certain thought, a certain philosophy, a certain conditioning. Now, if you are conditioned, then how can you find freed om. Because the very limitation will stop you from progressing. By all means do study the works of these so called masters. And if those masters were self realized men, they would say, "Do not follow my path. Read or listen to what I have to say, but t hat is not enough, that is not the end. Read everything, acquire the knowledge that you want to acquire, but do not be bound by it." That is what a true spiritual master will tell you. But they don't. Everyone wants to push his own philosophy. Churchil l pushed his own

2. U S 85 - 42 philosophy; Hitler did so too. And if we study history we could quote so many many names it will take the whole night to mention all those names. Now that is acquired knowledge. And when you acquire something, remember always that it wil l be discarded. Today you follow the philosophy of Fichte or Liebnitz, and then tomorrow you would turn to Kant or Schopenhauer, huh? Right. So do you see the fickleness of knowledge. Knowledge is fickle. Today you might enjoy a certain kind of food, a nd you enjoy it. OK. Fine. Tomorrow if the same food is served to you, you're not going to enjoy it. If you eat chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken for the whole week, the following week you will detest the chicken, do you see. The same principle applies in the acquisition of knowledge. Now, one must acquire knowledge, naturally, ok. Knowledge is necessary, for example, to do one's work. If you want to be an accountant or a lawyer or a doctor, and yet their knowledges differ so much. If you have some i llness and you go to five different doctors, each and everyone of them will give you a different prescription. So what is the medical knowledge worth. Nothing. If the five doctors would give you the same prescription in total conformity, then there would be value. So this applies to every aspect of knowledge. You go to a lawyer, for example, with a problem, one lawyer will give you a certain formulation on how to do your case. Then you go to another lawyer and he will give you his formulation or the s olution or whatever. Do you see. So now knowledge differs all the time, hm. And knowledge is also based on a belief system: you believe this to be so. You believe these flowers to be white. But I can prove to you that they are not white. I can turn th em into yellow now, in a second. So knowledge is dependent on perception. And perception, in turn, is dependent upon your patterning, your background, perhaps through many many lifetimes, huh. So these patterns are formed so that you try and approach kn owledge in a particular road. You take a particular road to find what you are seeking. And what you are really trying to seek in knowledge is just self affirmation, self confirmation of that which is in your mind already. Now, when it comes to wisdom, th at's a different story altogether. Wisdom does not require knowledge. Wisdom is an inborn quality that just comes and bubbles up. Does the spring require knowledge for itself to bubble? No. It bubbles by itself. And to find wisdom is never to seek for it, it comes on its own. Only thing that is required that you've got to unpattern the patternings in your mind created by knowledge, and when that unpatterning occurs, then wisdom just bubbles up. I could sit down amidst a hundred professors, right, I coul d sit amidst neurophysicians, neurologists, and they could ask any question, anything they like. And I could answer them because I do not speak from knowledge. I speak from that inner self which we can call wisdom. Now where does your wisdom lie? Not in your wisdom tooth. It lies in your heart. It lies in the heart. Now, through spiritual practices when the heart is more and more opened, a greater and greater awareness dawns. And awareness

3. U S 85 - 42 has nothing to do with knowledge. I give you the example of m y mother, totally illiterate. She cannot write or read. And yet, in Indian villages you have very large stoops. Is that what you call it? Stoops? [Voice: Porches?] Porches, right. And every night people of the villages used to gather and even withou t having any knowledge she would entrance them with her wisdom. Because every word that she would speak would strike their heart and open the heart of man, woman, or child. That is wisdom. It's not acquired knowledge. I remember when I was a boy of eigh t, I used to recite the Mahabharata to my mother and father. And there were passages that I couldn't understand. So I asked them what does this mean. They said, "Don't you worry about meaning, you just carry on reciting." But the very recitation sank de ep into the subconscious mind until it reached the level of the superconscious mind. And that is where all wisdom stems from, hm, that level of the superconscious mind. So it is not difficult to tap that superconscious level. It is there, all wisdom is t here within you. But you are cluttering up the wisdom by acquired knowledge. And when you try and acquire things, what are you really acquiring, hm? Acquisition, right. You buy a Rolls Royce, like I believe some guru here that skipped the country has 71 Rolls Royces. I haven't even got a bicycle. Yea. Do you see, do you see. So knowledge comes from book work. You can turn pages and pages and pages, and if you have retentive memory, you'll remember these things. I remember nothing. If you ask me t en minutes later, "Guruji, what did you speak about?" I wouldn't know. Because it is not the mind that's speaking to you. But it is the heart that is whispering to you; whispering to your hearts. Therefore, a true spiritual master not only imparts wisdom , but also with every word, with every intonation of his voice or inflection, he imparts a spiritual force to bring about an awakening in the hearts of men. And when that awakening dawns more and more, the greater and greater peace and love you will find. While knowledge leads, as I said before, to confusion based on, to repeat again, on belief systems. Yes, they believe all kinds of things: that God is sitting up there in the clouds with a long beard, huh; or some other religions believe that God has six hands, huh; other religions believe different things again. They believe, for example, the Muhammadans believe I might have told you this before, talking around the world I could never remember what I talk about. They would say you must not drink. The y say you must not do this and you must not do that, and you must not do that. And if you do not do these things thou shalt and thou shalt not type of things... That has been the greatest curse on earth, all these do's and don'ts. So this religion belie ves if you don't drink here and if you don't indulge in marital relationships and then when you reach up there now, I don't know where is up there is there really up there, huh? But we always point up there for one purpose: that the vastest thing that y ou could see on earth is the sky. That's the vastest thing that you could observe. That is why Krishna is pictured as blue, showing his great vastness. So then this religion says that if you don't do this here, you don't do that there, you don't do that there and when you reach up there, you'll

4. U S 85 - 42 have rivers of wine flowing, and you'll have all the houris you know, looking after you; pretty maidens looking after you. Not a damn for me! I don't believe in that. If I want a scotch here I will have it here ! Hm? If I want to love my woman here, I would love her here. Why wait for the unknown. So all these promises of these various theologies and philosophies are of the unknown. And how practical is it to you in your daily living. If you have a little pebble in your shoe, why limp around? You don't need to. You don't need to wait to go up there to take that pebble out. I'll take out that pebble here and now and stop limping. I'll be comfortable, why not. That's your birthright, to have that love an d peace and comfort. Hm? I mean, you don't do things to excesses, understood. But within reasonable means you try. Be good, do good if you can. But the main principle in life is to find freedom within yourself. Now freedom does not mean 007 license to kill. No. Freedom means to feel the heart being opened and free so the love pours out. You start loving yourself first, and then you will know how to love your neighbor. That is the secret of freedom . Freedom is the real kingdom that you live in. It is your birthright. You don't need to have to go on pilgrimages to Mecca or Jerusalem or to Banaras, [????], or any of those places. They're all here. Man, know thyself. And knowing thyself, everything else is known. And that is knowingness. Not acqui red knowledge. You can have a donkey with a million books on its back. But it will still remain a donkey. But knowingness is a quality of the heart, where you just know. You just know. Man, know thyself. That's what the scriptures say. There's great truth in it. I mean, we can't just discard scriptures. Ninety five percent of it is bullshit. But there is that five percent that one can really gain from. You see. So like the old story of the celestial swan, the water a nd milk is mixed, but it has t he ability to draw the water away and drink the milk. That is what we have to do. So study, it's a good mental exercise, mental gymnastics, nothing wrong. But spiritual practices are more important. That will give you true wisdom, that will give you th at knowingness. And by knowing yourself, everything else is known. Do you see. Because I know myself, I can see through the minds and hearts of each and every one of you in this room. That's knowingness. It's not knowledge. Knowledge is very simple when you study books and books and books. Ok. I used to know of one doctor and a patient comes to him and he asked the patients all the questions that's required. What's wrong with you? Where's your pain? Is it in your front side or backside or whereve r, right. And then, after a little examination he would say, "Please excuse me for a few moments." And he used to go into the next room and turn up the book that gives you symptoms. Turns up the book and then he writes out a prescription. Now is that kn owledge? Huh? No, it is false knowledge, and all knowledge in this world is false. Because it contradicts itself every day. Because of the belief system and the patterning that I spoke

5. U S 85 - 42 about. A professor of education will develop a particular system t oday. Right. Tomorrow he would think to himself, "Wait, this system can be changed a bit." So he will change it. Right. And then the third day he might get another thought and then he will change it again. So where is the stability of knowledge. Kno wledge is never stable. Knowledge is never stable. You might know something today and tomorrow something else crops up and you change all the time. How does that help man? It limits you, as I said, and it keeps you just where you are. What you are actu ally doing in the acquisition of knowledge is just shifting energies around. Mental energies, and you shift them around from time to time to time. All the time. The knowledge you had ten years ago, compare it with the knowledge you have today. What gre at difference. Like this young lad, when he was 14, he thought his father knew nothing. But when he reached the age of 25, he said, "My father knows something." The father has not changed, but the boy has changed. Hm. I have a very good friend who used to be a good customer of mine during business days. And he was a very good handy man. He had a work shop in his backyard and he used to create some lovely pieces of furniture and things. His neighbor this chap had a so n, of course, and his neighbor was a professor who also had a son of the same age. So the professor's son tells his pal, "Your father is so clever." And he found his own father, the professor, to be stupid. Do you see. Perspective. Attitude. And the greatest attitude one could ever have in life is to dive deep within oneself and allow the wisdom to pour out. And that does not come from any mental acquisition. No. Wisdom is not born in the mind. Knowledge can be mixed up in the mind. Wisdom comes from here [presumably gesturing to the heart], inside. All these professors of philosophy, thousands and thousands of them around the world, and they've studied every philosophy. And yet, I tell you they're more confused than what the ordinary man in the street is. Hm? You see. So all these studies have only lead them to greater and greater confusion. If they had not the confusion, they would be in a fusion with Divinity. And that's what I teach. Do your spiritual practices and find that wisdom withi n. And yet, finding that wisdom you can still be worldly. Hm? You can still enjoy your James Hadley Chase and all those things. Pastime. Read the various philosophies or the scriptures or whatever you want to do. Doesn't matter. But do not let it aff ect you. Become an observer of knowledge, but do not be involved in that knowledge. Ok, you need knowledge for your job. Here's a computer expert, there's a psychologist, here's another psychologist, a professor here, there's a doctor, there, huh, ther e's an artist, ok. You got to do these things to get your daily bread. It's a pity why people only ask for the daily bread and not also a piece of fish with it [laughs]. You can have everything you want, everything. You can hold the whole universe in t he palm of your hand if you try and dive deep within yourself, because everything is within yourself. The entire universe is within yourself, and after all, what is the universe. Is it n ot just a conception? And yet, the world's greatest telescopes can o nly reach so far. So how much do they know about the

6. U S 85 - 42 universe? Nothing. Very little. They have not even fathomed this galaxy, and forget the galaxy, not even the solar system. Because there are other planets also swirling around which they have not dis covered. I believe they discovered a different planet recently, I don't remember the name. I read about it somewhere. Do you see. [END SIDE ONE] So where does knowledge go, how far does it reach. Very little. Knowledge becomes more a projection of one's thoughts rather than the thought itself. Become the thought and not the projection of a thought. That is wisdom. Who am I sitting here? Am I human, animal, plant or mineral? I'm all of them because of so many lives past. I had to proceed through all those stages of mineral, plant, animal, and human. So they're all contained within me. They're all contained within me. So I am it all. And when you realize this you will find that the whole universe is yours. You are the universe. Because these are the constituents of the universe: fire, air, water, ether, and what's the fifth one? [Voices: earth] Earth, that's right, thank you, dear. [Voices: right] The whole audience participation [laughter]. So the whole universe is composed of these fiv e basic elements. And you are also composed of these five basic elements. So how can you separate yourself from the entirety of the universe. Do you see. Because if the universe is composed of the five basic elements, and you are composed of the same fi ve basic elements, then don't you think you're an integral part of the entire universe? Do you see. That's wisdom, not acquired knowledge. There. And if you examine yourself you will find there's fire in you, or else you will not have digestion; there' s water in you; and as they say dust to dust, that means earth is in you; ether is in you because the basis of your very breathing is that ether, or prana. Do you see. So it's all there, it's all in you. So do not get confused. Have your mind at peace all the time. For that is your true nature: peace, peace, peace. Shanti, shanti, shanti, shanti. I think we've done nearly an hour. We're invited out for dinner tonight, Vidya. We don't want to keep our hosts waiting too long. **** END ****