How does the journey from ignorance to knowledge begin?  –  Suppose someone wants to mine gold. They need to know quite a few things about gold: for example, what gold looks like, why it is worth mining and where to mine for it. Otherwise, they won’t search at all or will mistake something else to be gold. 

What applies to physical things such as gold applies even more to subtler things such as knowledge. Suppose someone wants to learn how to treat blindness. They need to know who can treat it, who can teach them how to treat it and, more fundamentally, that treating blindness is even possible.  

If knowledge starts not from zero but from a greater-than-zero beginning, what brings anyone to that greater-than-zero starting point? Society in general or social events in particular, as when a gold rush mania grips a community. 

But what when social causes can’t explain adequately, as when someone exhibits a strong spiritual urge despite being in a largely non-spiritual social setting? Beyond social causes lies a historical cause: the Bhagavad-gita (06.44) states that people who have been spiritual seekers in their previous lives gravitate spontaneously toward non-material exploration in this life. 

What if someone hasn’t previously embarked on a spiritual search? Beyond historical causes lies an essential cause: we all have a spiritual essence made of consciousness and rich with cognitive potential. It is due to this core that we seek to know various things, including ultimately to know ourselves and the whole to which we belong. Though that core is usually triggered by some social or historical cause, it is that core which makes any quest for any knowledge possible.  

One-sentence summary: 

Knowledge starts from a non-zero beginning — we find ourselves at that point not just because of some social or historical cause but primarily because we all have spiritual core rich with cognitive potential.

Think it over:

  • Knowledge begins from a non-zero starting point. Explain. 
  • What factors bring one to that starting point?
  • Have you encountered in anyone a mysterious thirst for knowledge?

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06.44: By virtue of the divine consciousness of his previous life, he automatically becomes attracted to the yogic principles – even without seeking them. Such an inquisitive transcendentalist stands always above the ritualistic principles of the scriptures.

How does the journey from ignorance to knowledge begin?

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