K SIVA PRASAD – Retired senior IAS officer in the Punjab Government.
The capacity for lifelong learning is a human inexhaustible resource. The fundamental question is how to learn and what to learn.
Sri Krishna says that by prostrating before those who have realized the truth, inquiring, and serving, one will attain true knowledge (4.34). Prostrating implies humility, modesty, the ability to understand others’ perspectives, and fundamentally, open-mindedness, which is the overcoming of ego. Questioning is like a feedback loop in an electronic circuit where we question everything we say or do, asking why we said or did something. This process must be continued until all questions are exhausted. Service arises from compassion.
The next question is, who is a wise or realized Guru and how to find one?
In the Srimad Bhagavatam, Krishna refers to a wise man who says he has had 24 gurus and learned forgiveness from the earth; innocence from a child; detachment from the wind; refraining from hoarding from bees; equanimity from the sun; the network of senses from a fish; and the list goes on.
This means that as long as the three qualities of learning are present within us, the Guru is around us.
Regarding “what to learn,” Sri Krishna clarifies that knowing that which will allow you to never again be confused, by which you will see all beings in yourself, including me (4.35). This verse also states that knowing “that” after knowing which nothing remains to be known. Of course, this doesn’t mean reading all the books in the world. Sri Krishna simplifies it when he says that it is “that” through which we will be able to see all beings and God within ourselves.
We glorify the good in ourselves and the bad in others. This verse states that we possess evil and others possess good, and that God is everywhere. Once we understand this simple truth, there is no room for confusion.