 Innocence and intelligence
 We all came into this world gifted with innocence, but, gradually, as we became more intelligent, we lost our innocence. We were born with silence and as we grew up, we lost the silence and were filled with words. We lived in our hearts and as time passed, we moved into our heads.
Now, the reversal of this journey is enlightenment. It is the journey from the head back to the heart, from words back to silence; getting back to our innocence in spite of our intelligence. Although very simple, this is a great achievement.
Knowledge should lead you to that beautiful point of “I don’t know”. The purpose of knowledge is ignorance. The completion of knowledge leads you to amazement and wonder. It makes you aware of this existence. Mysteries are to be lived, not understood.
I am not extraordinary, I am a most ordinary person, and are all of you. One thing I know is that I could somehow maintain my innocence with which I was born. And now and then, here and there, I speak a few words and that could put some back to their innocence.
As our intelligence grows, we tend to lose our innocence. Now the whole 'Art of Living' is to maintain innocence and, yet, grow in intelligence. So the purpose of knowledge is ignorance.
The innocence of the ignorant has no value but the innocence of one who has gone through knowledge has value. Say, for example, somebody is impotent - the celibacy of an impotent person has no value. If someone does not do anything, and claims to be doing nothing, it has no value. But someone who is very busy, and
still can recognise that things are happening, it’s all happening…
If one could still maintain a gap between the doing, between the happening and in oneself, then that is very precious. And it is very simple also, isn’t it? It’s not that one has to strive hard to do something to maintain the innocence. An ignorant person won’t say, “I don’t know”; one passes through knowledge and then comes to another “I don’t know” which is the beautiful “I don’t know”.
Knowledge increases your idea of not knowing. So, as you know more, the unknown seems to be increasing. It could be in any field, whether music, science or arts - the unknown seems to increase. And as a recognition of this, something happens: the beautiful “I don’t know” - and that is what innocence is. The ignorance, which has passed through knowledge gets into another state of transformed ignorance which is the beautiful “I don’t know”.
Sri Sri Ravishankar
(Founder, Art of Living)
|
