ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE IN DEVELOPMENT OF MAN

Undoubtedly, man has more potential to learn than the other beings. By virtue of their inherent nature, animals know how to swim by birth, birds know how to make their nests et cetra. Nests of some of the birds are great pieces of architecture. But, man cannot learn anything without getting taught. It is also true that if he is taught,  he can learn the highest of the knowledge. Now, how these birds, animals, creatures et cetra happen to possess their knowledge. Also, how man could have knowledge when there was no earlier man on this earth. Scientific replies to these questions is that God gave the knowledge to birds, animals and man in the beginning of life.

 Development has four stages-bodily, intellectual, mental and spiritual. In beings, other than human beings, intellect is negligible and is limited to fulfilling bodily requirements, mind too surrounds body and soul’s powers are limited to generation of sense of being. To be precise, in animals other than human beings, only bodily development is possible. But in human beings all the four types of developments are possible. All the first three types of developments viz. bodily, intellectual and mental are dependent on each other. Development of soul is independent in itself, though it affects the first three developments. Man cannot be said to be developed until and unless his soul is developed. As such, the aim of bodily development, intellectual development and mental development should be development of soul. Now, we will try to give a glimpse of-what is bodily, intellectual and mental development. Certain types of knowledge can be summed up in a few pages (in theory) but they require a lot of practice to master that skill. We can place learning of driving a two-wheeler or four wheeler in this category. Learning different concepts of physics, chemistry et cetra pave our way to intellectual development. In the sequence of body, intellect, mind and soul, intellect is only one step farther from body. As such, it is said that to have a good intellect, a good body is required. Mental development refers to our ability to control our senses and to have control over pain or pleasure received from hunger, seasons et cetra. In the sequence of body, intellect, mind and soul, mind is only one step prior to soul. As such, mental development is said to be of prime importance in development of soul. It, in no way, means that for development of soul, development of body and intellect are no more required. The closer a part will be to soul in the sequence, the more will be its importance in development of soul. We learn from the one who has more knowledge than us in the field. As regards, bodily and intellectual fields, it is comparatively easier to judge whether a person knows more than us or not. In mental field, though it is difficult to assess whether a person knows better than us or not but we can make our assessment on seeing him controlling his senses. ‘Development of soul’ refers to enjoyment of the bliss of God. As spirituality is concerned with feelings, any person can claim that he experiences bliss of God. It becomes very difficult to know whether the claimer is speaking the truth or not. There are two methods to know about the truth of the claimer. Before we go further in explaining the two methods talked of above, it would be better to reiterate the need of knowing the truth of the person from whom we intend to learn about our spiritual development. When we say that our teacher should know more than us, then it inherently means that our teacher is able to guide us to move in the right direction. This applies to spiritual teacher also.

Methods to know whether a person whom we intend to make our ‘spiritual teacher’ (termed as ‘guru’ in Sanskrit and Hindi) can actually lead us to spiritual development

First Method-Behaviour of the spiritual teacher or guru should be such, which indicates about his progress in the spiritual field.

Second Method- Behaviour of the spiritual teacher or guru should be in consonance with the writings of Rishis or Maharishis, who happened to be knowledgeable men in the field of spirituality.