The Assimilation of Knowledge
Here's a short story about assimilating the knowledge we receive in our daily life. There were 105 princes in the classroom and one son of the Guru. The teacher taught the class, “Anger is not good.” Then he asked, “Do you remember what I said?” and everyone said, “Yes.”
The next day he asked, “Who doesn’t remember what I said yesterday?” One prince raised his hand. The teacher said, “You don’t remember!” and then he asked another student who answered, “Anger is not good.”
The teacher asked the prince again, “Do you remember now?”
The Prince said, “Still not.”
The teacher asked another student who answered correctly, and when the teacher asked the Prince, he replied, “Sorry, still trying.” The teacher then became upset and yelled, “What stupid you are! You don’t remember this!” and the Prince said, “Now I remember.” The Prince was Yudhisthira, the eldest of the Pandavas, the noblest one.
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Remembering is one thing, putting it into practice is another thing. Your teacher says to “watch your breath” but are you putting it into practice? Whatever knowledge we get, if we cannot digest or assimilate it then what is the meaning of that knowledge?
Excerpt from a transcript of Paramahamsa Prajnananandaji speaking at the 2014 Sydney Residential Retreat.
