Philosophy is all about discipline
Neti, Neti.
- Chandogya Upanishad.
Nahi nahi rakshati drukun karane…
"this rote will never help you…"
- Adi Shankara, "Bhaja Govindam"
Karna’s death in the Mahabharata hints at the uselessness of theoretical learning in practical life. He had learnt all sorts of powerful spells and mantras which could help him turn the tables against his enemies in battle.
Yet he was cursed to forget it all when he needed it most. True enough, when he faced his terminal fight, he clean forgot all about his learning, and died a helpless and frustrated man.
That sums up the essential problem with all religion, all philosophy. It sounds nice when you hear it, yet it serves little or no purpose in your everyday life. You can somehow never put it to practical use. People spend hours upon hours listening to discourses, take time off to read scriptures, yet not a shred of it comes to their rescue when things go wrong, when they face a crisis or they get into trouble. Its Karna’s curse reloaded and refitted into everyone’s life, every day.
How do you make philosophy work for you? How do you arrive at stillness in the midst of a storm? How do you instantly recollect what worked in the quietness of your room, in the hush of dawn, and put it to use when you need it most?
Ideally, philosophy should be more a discipline than a teaching, like martial arts. It should tune your thought reflexes, tighten your mental sinews, and even though, like martial arts, you will never resort to a classical stance, block and strike in a street fight — the residual memory of your learning should always be strong enough to burn its way through the adrenaline and come to real use when your life is in danger.
Neti, Neti.
Not the rote of theoretical learning. Not the mesmeric hype of orators. Book learning has a strictly limited value. Reading too much has a negative effect — it lulls the reader into a false feeling of having learnt a lot, when in fact all that has happened is that you have been seduced by the rhetoric of the writer.
If people can become enlightened by reading books then half of humanity would by now have a halo over their heads.
Vedanta always insists on philosophy as a working discipline more than an oral learning. It insists you discover the power of silence all by yourself, for yourself. It takes you on a practical route of meditation and reflection where you can, at any time, even in the worst of times, even in the midst of an emotional storm-find shelter and discover your centre. If you flow with Vedanta, a time will surely come when Karna’s curse will lift, and you integrate life with learning in ways beyond the ken of your current imagination.
The author is a filmmaker. Email him at mani2shankar@gmail.com
By Mani Shankar
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