Skip to main content

Wisdom



The best differentiation between knowledge and wisdom is given by Miles Kington, British musician. “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit,” he said. “Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”

Wisdom is not an accumulation of knowledge, as I used to think for a long time. I kept on reading book after book on every possible topic under the sun from religion to science deluded by the hope that I would be wise one day until I realised that the semiliterate neighbour of mine whom I offered a lift once was far wiser than me though he had never read any book. What makes us happy or miserable is just a choice we make, he said when I made a snide remark on a hoarding that promised all Indians achhe din, happy days.

“Knowledge is something you possess. Wisdom is something you do.” Nobody could have put it better than Eric Weiner [The Socrates Express]. I know that I am a silly old man on a tiny planet in a cosmos that has billions of galaxies. But I act as if I am the Lord of the cosmos.

I am not wise, in other words. Will I ever achieve wisdom? I don’t know. Is wisdom limited to a few? To a rare Buddha, Christ, and Mahatma?

I am tempted to think that wisdom is a rare prerogative. But this neighbour who accepted my offer of a ride leaves me thinking otherwise. Some are wise and others are otherwise, as one of my teachers used to say long ago. Sometimes you will run into one of those ‘some’ on the roadside waiting, beneath a hoarding that promises an illusion, for a public carrier while you drive your precious private vehicle. Wisdom is not necessarily rare.

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon.

 

Comments

  1. Hari OM
    It is not rare - but is, perhaps, rarely used! Another facet is that knowledge is often acquired for ego satisfaction. The ego itself blocks the flow of wisdom... Having all the knowledge in the world serves us little if we know not how - and when - to apply it. That takes practice. And yes, some seem to have it naturally! YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good post!!
    Maybe wisdom is one reason why computers cannot replace humans as yet.
    Humans need to nurture this gift that they have.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can we program computers to be wise too? Maybe one day we'll do that too.

      Delete
  3. Wisdom might not be rare but is it not difficult to achieve? May be after a lot of mistakes we understand things better!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At least in my case this is true. I learned a lot of things through mistakes.

      Delete
  4. Wisdom may dawn upon anybody at any point of his/her life. However it's useful for himself/herself only. It's futile to preach others on the basis of that wisdom of oneself. The sermons of Buddha and Mahavira did not make the world or the life of the people (who listened to them) any better (they might have got some additional satisfaction by delivering them though).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wisdom can't be communicated. That's why Buddha and Mahavira failed. Wisdom can be learnt, however, as Eric Weiner (mentioned in the post) argues. That's why Buddha and others preached.

      Delete
  5. Some are wise and others are otherwise...wow,

    Wisdom I think can come if we try to reflect on our actions and reactions to situations...We may know it what to do in future

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Of course we can acquire wisdom by contemplation and so on.

      Delete
  6. It is true that wisdom is not merely an accumulation of knowledge. We may gather a lot of knowledge over time but wisdom is something on another level beyond pride and like you said not necessarily rare

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pride is perhaps the biggest obstacle on the way to wisdom.

      Delete
  7. Loved every word of this wise and delightful post. And then read Yamini's comment. I'm smiling.
    Thank you.
    Keep shining your light, dear friend.

    ReplyDelete
  8. They say, in a world full of tricksters, the wise suffer. Or do they? A beautiful and thought provoking post.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Whose Rama?

Book Review Title: Whose Rama? [Malayalam] Author: T S Syamkumar Publisher: D C Books, Kerala Pages: 352 Rama may be an incarnation of God Vishnu, but is he as noble a man [ Maryada Purushottam ] as he is projected to be by certain sections of Hindus? This is the theme of Dr Syamkumar’s book, written in Malayalam. There is no English translation available yet. Rama is a creation of the Brahmins, asserts the author of this book. The Ramayana upholds the unjust caste system created by Brahmins for their own wellbeing. Everyone else exists for the sake of the Brahmin wellbeing. If the Kshatriyas are given the role of rulers, it is only because the Brahmins need such men to fight and die for them. Valmiki’s Rama too upheld that unjust system merely because that was his Kshatriya-dharma, allotted by the Brahmins. One of the many evils that Valmiki’s Rama perpetrates heartlessly is the killing of Shambuka, a boy who belonged to a low caste but chose to become an ascetic. The...

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

In this Wonderland

I didn’t write anything in the last few days. Nor did I feel any urge to write. I don’t know if this lack of interest to write is what’s called writer’s block. Or is it simple disenchantment with whatever is happening around me? We’re living in a time that offers much, too much, to writers. The whole world looks like a complex plot for a gigantic epic. The line between truth and fiction has disappeared. Mass murders have become no-news. Animals get more compassion than fellow human beings. Even their excreta are venerated! Folk tales are presented as scientific truths while scientific truths are sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. When the young generation in Nepal set fire to their Parliament and Supreme Court buildings, they were making an unmistakable statement: that they are sick of their political leaders and their systems. Is there any country whose leaders don’t sicken their citizens? I’m just wondering. Maybe, there are good leaders still left in a few coun...

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault.  For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy.  Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves?  Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian.  In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically.  Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification.  In fact, they existed even before the Briti...