His companion, on the other hand, went to the owner, made friends with him, and then quietly going to a tree, began, at his host's request, to pluck the fruits and eat them. Ramakrishna now asks. "Whom do you consider the wiser of the two? and answers his rhetorical question by advising us, "Eat mangoes! It will satisfy your hunger. What is the good of counting the trees and leaves, and making endless calculations? The vain man of intellect busies himself with finding out the why' and wherefore' of creation, while the humble man of wisdom makes friends with the creator and enjoys His gift of supreme bliss!

Thanks to the scientific and technological development during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the intellect, which has been responsible for this growth, is being worshipped in a much greater measure than during the earlier periods. Rightly the present time has been called the age of information and technology, and suddenly we find we are in the midst of a 'knowledge explosion'.

Explosion is the appropriate word, for the type of knowledge that we gather and use in our scientific development can only bring about an explosion, and not allow humanity to 'flower'. So long as the mind operates without hindrance, it goes on accumulating knowledge and so many other things which are material in character. Even in the so-called spiritual domain, man depends upon 'thought', which it is now well established, as a purely material process.

To see the worthlessness of such 'knowledge' is meditation. Real meditation is the emptying of the mind of all knowledge accumulated over long periods of time in the past, and freeing oneself of that enormous burden. One then has a fresh, new mind -- capable of receiving knowledge of a different kind based upon deep insight. In order to arrive at such an insight, one has to dig into oneself and throw out all the accumulated garbage, which is second hand in any case, gathered from modern books or ancient texts.

This sudden insight opens up everything, and you are now firmly set on the path of - 'knowing'. this knowing does not result in knowledge, because you don't store it inside yourself. You know that this knowing or learning is endless, infinite. And in this knowing there is no pain, no swelling of the intellect, no carrying of a load weighing you down, but a knowing that is sweet, light and utterly free. Why not give this 'knowing' a chance to operate in you, so that you may enjoy life instead of merely enduring it?

This precious gift of human life is not to be 'put up with', but something that has to be intelligently used to soar above the clouds of 'knowledge and thought', to reach out for the stars, and attain the bliss which is far, far above, the tawdry pleasure and comfort. In fact, 'attain' is not the right word. 'Discover' would be more accurate, since your essential nature is bliss itself.

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