Importance of Knowledge

The following is a translation of a story (#204, Chapter 1) appearing in ‘Golpe Atmovidya - Volume II'.  The story was rendered by Sri Sri Babathakur on March 15, 1973.

Sri Sri Babathakur shared the following story during a Satsang. Once upon a time, there were a couple of plays taking place in the cities of Comilla and Dacca.  One was named 'Plabon' and the other 'Shankhopanjo'. Both of were based on equally good books. People in the two cities began a dispute over which was the better play, their argument soon reaching its peak. There lived nearby an old Mokhtar (i.e. head of the provincial government), full of wisdom.  The Mokhtar was assigned the responsibility of settling the argument. He took a matchstick and set the two books on fire in front of everybody.  Observing this the people present there asked him, “Why did you do this”?  The Mokhtar replied, ”These two books are the reason of quarrel and turmoil among you all. That is why I destroyed the books!”

Stating the importance of the incident, Sri Sri Babathakur said, “Ignorance is the seed of turmoil in the world. It creates confusion in a man in many ways, and the mind of a confused man is always disturbed and restless. It is because of this ignorance that he is unable to use anything in a correct manner. As a result there are errors in his use/ application of anything.  Consequently man has to suffer the fruits of his mistakes. Due to a lack of knowledge, man has to suffer the fruits of ignorance.  Again it is only through knowledge that a man can get rid of ignorance and become error free.  Knowledge protects human beings from all kinds of danger. There is nothing as pure as Knowledge, and nobody as true a friend as knowledge.  Ignorance is bondage and knowledge, liberation.  Ignorance is death and knowledge is nectar.  Ignorance is dual, a devil and a monster.  Knowledge is God.”