The Long Journey Ahead, 14 10 2025
I wonder often why I don’t do what is right. How can I consciously ignore the right path and step on the wrong one despite knowing it. I found the answer when I came across the contrast between jnana or knowledge that is hearsay, and vijnana which is experiential knowledge. In other words, jnana can turn into vijnana when it is experienced and is internalized to becomes intuitive. Intuitive knowledge is seen not just in words but is transformed into wisdom that is reflected in our conduct.
Knowledge only lights up the paths available, while it is values that trigger behavior. The paths can be either self-centered, instant gratification or eco-system centered, enduring benefits. What we choose depends on what we value: immediate fleeting pleasure or the delayed but enduring bliss. Our choice is heavily influenced by the 3 Es, our environment, education and experience. Environmental influence of our family, friends and our role models give us hearsay knowledge, while educational learnings from both formal and informal instructions received, and personal experiences can convert it to experiential knowledge or wisdom.
Our actions reflect our values. A key element of value is what we see as a means and an end. It is logical that if we are not at our destination, we need some means to travel to it. Means in today’s world often translate to money, or ways to acquire money. It is possible that we may become enamored with money and make our means an end in itself. Are not people who see money or wealth as an end in itself called misers?
With the means, we can satisfy our needs or hunger, Our hunger for pleasure, wealth, power, or knowledge. As realized by our experiences, human mind seeks novelty and increasing intensity to sustain its engagement with pleasure. While for some the search for novelty is adequate, for others boredom is inevitable, sooner or later but for sure. What is their option?
The awareness that boredom is the inevitable end in the search for pleasure, can lead us to something beyond pleasure. It could be in ‘Being the Best’ of pursuing excellence to improve each day over what we were yesterday or going beyond ourselves to ‘Helping the Rest’, or looking into the future to ‘Build a Better Nest’, to make our earth a better place.
Our engagement in pursuit beyond means and pleasure can be either a “hobby” to be pursued in our spare time, when we are bored, or it can become a way of life, the very essence of our existence where we are totally committed to our goal every second of our existence. Can this be an end in itself? I believe that it can, as in a vast destination that we arrive at where exploration is endless. Improving ourselves, helping the rest, or making tomorrow better, offers infinite scope with no end in sight.
How far I travel in this journey depends on how much I internalize this knowledge and make it intuitive, that is make it my own. On retrospect, my sixty-five years existence has not taken me very far in this journey. I have a long way to go………………
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