Let us enter into today’s Satsang. I will continue to expand on 9th verse of the Isavasya Upanishad. Please recite along with Me:

andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti ye’avidyām upāsate |

tato bhūya iva te tamo yau vidyāyāṁ ratāḥ || 9 ||

Those who worship avidyā, ignorance that veils the true knowledge of Truth, Consciousness, enter into blinding darkness characterized by the absence of perception; but into greater darkness of ignorance than that, enter they who, considering themselves as scholarly and learned, are engaged in vidyā, the incomplete knowledge acquired for vested interests, characterized by the impure perception of Truth and Consciousness.

See, this verse talks about two types of people—one, who worship ignorance, second, who worship half-truth. Knowledge for the sake of vested interest, not for the sake of knowledge itself. Understand, knowledge for the sake of vested interest, not for the knowledge itself.

When you start worshipping the knowledge for the sake of knowledge, you become embodiment of vidyā, knowledge.

But if you are worshipping the knowledge for some other vested interests, as I was describing few days before, for the sake of luxury or for the sake of any other comforts, if you stop seeking, you’ll be suffering with the half-knowledge, the incomplete knowledge, the impure perception of Truth, Consciousness.

I am telling you, please understand, when you enter into the search of spiritual knowledge, seeking, you will have such liberating truths about freedom. All powerfulness! All these great truths will be told, but be very clear, unless they become experience, don’t try to mess up with the concepts of freedom. Please understand, most of the time, giving in to your patterns, you will start declaring as freedom. You will say, “after all I am enlightened, I am a soul, I am free,” then finally go and eat the beef. Ramakrishna says beautifully, in one example,

“the crow may try to boast about itself, but finally end up in eating what it eats from the dustbin, dirt.”

So understand, most of the time, these so-called knowledgeable people also, with the incomplete knowledge, they give in to their patterns and declare they are free. Please listen, I will give you a more clear example. Without becoming Paramahamsa, try to live like a Paramahamsa, really without getting to the space of non-attachment, trying to live as if unattached. Listen, this is a most dangerous game people will play. But of course, nobody else need to punish them, they them-self will be punishing themselves. They will be punishing themselves.

Giving in to your patterns cannot be freedom. Here, what Upanishads are trying to tell, I will expand. Listen, step by step. These incomplete knowledge people, people with incomplete knowledge, before even achieving Enlightenment, due to their vested interests, because of their impure perception of Truth and Consciousness, even though they claim they are unattached, wise, they get completely distracted and destroyed, with the incomplete knowledge.

Actually Upanishads are trying to very boldly describe the obstacles you will face in the initial level seeker and advanced level seeker. For an initial level seeker, the biggest problem is boredom due to which you don’t break whenever you hit the block, you just develop a ‘don’t care attitude’ towards your ignorance. Second, as an advanced seekers, I have seen even in our Sangha people behaving like this, they try to behave without taking the responsibility of Enlightenment, all the powers of Enlightenment. I have so many fellows who are waiting to grab the powers of Enlightenment without taking the responsibility of Enlightenment and without having the experience of Enlightenment. Understand, Enlightenment is not expertise, it is experience. People start thinking, if they learn how I behave, how I live, and expertise my behavior, they can become enlightened or they can show themselves as enlightened. (laughs moves head from side to side). Enlightenment comes as experience, not out of being expertised. It is not from expertise, its from experience.

Listen!

The second level obstacles are more dangerous; there, you start behaving almost like enlightened, but with incomplete knowledge, without the expertise. I tell you, an Enlightened Being, the definition of Enlightened Being, his level of seeking will be totally different from your level, but he will continue to be seeking because seeking is the only way he will be alive, that’s the only way he even makes you understand he is alive, that’s only qualification of his existence. See, you can prove you are alive by so many things; eating a sweet, having physical pleasures, through all you prove that you are alive to yourself and to others. But an Enlightened Being is alive only in his seeking, that is the only way he reminds himself he is alive and he proves he is alive to others. To that level, his very core will be seeking; his very core will be seeking!

andhaṁ tamaḥ praviśanti ye’avidyām upāsate |

tato bhūya iva te tamo yau vidyāyāṁ ratāḥ || 9 ||

So today, I wanted the subject for Vaakyartha Sadas should be: how the incomplete knowledge makes you arrogant and makes you lose your seeking, makes you egoistic, and how the growth is, growth gets stopped by the incomplete knowledge. Have Vaakyartha Sadas on this.