WHAT CONSTITUTES TRUE KNOWLEDGE.
Argument:—Amateurs of learning of two kinds, the real and the
affected or Description of the two kinds of the lovers of
knowledge, viz, the real and the Fictitious.
Vasishtha continued:—The wise man must always conduct himself wisely,
and not with mere show or affectation of wisdom; because the ignorant
even are preferable to the affected and pretended lovers of learning.
(According to the maxim which says that, if the show of anything be good
for anything, surely the Reality must be better).
2. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, what is meant by true wisdom, and by the
show or affectation of it; and what is the good or bad result of either.
(_i.e._ What kind of men they are, their signs and their respective
ends).
3. Vasishtha replied:—He who reads the sástras, and practices his
learning as a practitioner for earning his livelihood, without
endeavouring to investigate into the principles of his knowledge, is
called a friend to learning.
4. Whose learning is seen to be employed in busy life only, without
showing its true effect in the improvement of the understanding; such
learning being but an art or means of getting a livelihood, its
possessor is called a fellow of learning; (and no doctor in it).
5. He who is satisfied with his food and dress only, as the best gain of
his learning; is known as an amateur and novice in the art of explaining
the sástra (or as mere teachers and pedagogues).
6. He who persists in the performance of his righteous and ceremonial
acts, as ordained by law (Srouta sástra) with an object of fruition, is
termed a probationer in learning, and is near about to be crowned with
knowledge.
7. The knowledge of the soul (spiritual knowledge), is reckoned as the
true knowledge; all other knowledge is merely a semblance of it, being
void of the essential knowledge (necessary for mankind).
8. Those who without receiving the spiritual knowledge, are content with
bits of their secular learning; all their labour is in vain in this
world, and they are styled as mere noviciates in learning.
9. Ráma, you must not rest here with your heart’s content, unless you
can rest in the peace of your mind, with your full knowledge of the
knowable one; you must not remain like a novice in learning, in order to
enjoy the fruitions of this deleterious world. (Here all pleasure is
palpable pain).
10. Let men work honestly on earth to earn their bread, and let them
take their food for sustenance of their lives; let them live for the
inquiry after truth, and let them learn that truth, which is calculated
to prevent their return to this miserable world.