What is true Knowledge??
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2 Verse 46- Explained
Introduction
Bhagavad Gita is a conversation between Krishna and Arjun. This dialogue begins just before the war of Mahabharata is about to begin. On seeing his family in opposition, Arjun is gripped with fear and confusion and wants to run away, but Krishna convinces him to fight and tells Arjun why he today raise his weapons to kill his brothers and relatives in this war.
Bhagavad Gits teaches us how to live life!
The core message of the Bhagavad Gita is considered very powerful for it can fundamentally transform the way you live your life. Bhagavad Gita is also called a summary of Vendantic Knowledge or simply ancient Knowledge.
Bhagavad Gita is crystallized form of the Hindu thought.
Bhagavad Gita is 700 verses long, spread across 18 chapters. Here we will understand Verse 46 of Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita.
Verse 2.46
यावानर्थ उदपाने सर्वत: सम्प्लुतोदके |
तावान्सर्वेषु वेदेषु ब्राह्मणस्य विजानत: || 46||
yavan artha udapane sarvatah samplutodake
tavansarveshu vedeshu brahmanasya vijanatah
Translation
Whatever purpose is served by small well (i.e. to provide water) can also be served by a large lake, similarly, the ones who have experienced the absolute truth can understand the true meaning of the Vedas, and thus are the ones who possess complete knowledge.
Commentary:
Krishna is telling Arjun that a person who has experienced the absolute truth can very well understand the true meaning hidden in the scriptures. He can translate his experience of truth into wisdom which can help him navigate life by taking wise calls on day-to-day decisions in life.
One who understands Everything can always understand Anything!
Krishna here takes the analogy of a small well and a large lake. In the old days, people used to have a well in their houses which provided water for their daily needs. Such wells exist even in this modern world, in the form of motorized borewells which serve the same purpose as the old age well.
Krishna is implying that a well is used to provide water for a single house for daily chores, but the same water can also be fetched from a giant lake. After all, water is water.
In fact, this statement of Krishna has become literally true, as modern-day houses have a water supply which is provided by the city administration where the water is invariably fetched from a lake fed by a river. This water is stored in giant overhead tanks which are no less than a modern lake, with an abundance of water. Thus the houses of today need not have a well and are actually living off the water of a lake.
Krishna means that a Lake has an infinite reservoir of water, much more than a house can need in its lifetime, yet the Lake can fulfil all the needs of that house. In fact, the lake can serve the needs of thousands of houses in a city.
Krishna here is equating the lake to a person who has experienced the truth and thus has infinite knowledge, for the person who has experienced truth, can see through Maya and understand even the most complex mysteries of this world.
For such a person, the complex Vedic knowledge seems like a sequence of logical explanations, as he can understand it very well as if he is reading some sort of a generic story in the common tongue of the masses.
To appreciate what Krishna is saying, we need to understand what Vedas are!
What are Vedas?
Vedas are a storehouse of Knowledge. The word Veda itself means “Knowledge”. Vedas are ancient scriptures written in Sanskrit, flush with knowledge, which teach us ways of life, for they teach us how to think and how to act.
These nuggets of wisdom are however a step towards a greater goal of experiencing the Absolute Truth which is known as Brahman (ब्रह्म) in Vedant.
Vedas are written like Poetry
However the language of Vedas is cryptic at most times, for the Vedas are written in the form of verses similar to poetry, and thus the words and verses point towards a deeper meaning.
Thus to assume that the literal translation of the words used in the verses of the Vedas is indeed the intended meaning would be a wrong approach. Just like a poem, which always has a deeper hidden meaning, Vedas can’t be taken at their face value and doing so will never help a person gain complete knowledge.
One has to catch the essence of what is written, one has to capture the deeper meaning hidden beneath these words. This needs experience, and not experience of time or age, but a special kind of experience. It needs the experience of the Absolute Truth of this universe.
Thus the ones who have experienced this absolute truth can very easily understand what the Vedas intend to say, just like a traveller who has reached a destination after hardships, can understand what a map and its symbols truly mean, which will otherwise make no sense to a person who had never traveled on that path.
That is why Krishna is telling Arjun that a lake can do the job of a small well very easily, and similarly the person who has experienced the truth can understand the true meaning of Vedas very easily.
Thus Krishna is implying that Arjun must also drop his half-baked knowledge and listen to him carefully if he wants to understand the truth!
Knowledge is True only when Truth is Experienced
