From understanding arises experience, and through experience comes wisdom!
But where does understanding come from?...rnPujya Deepakbhai, the Living Gnani, says, “First and foremost, we should have a correct understanding of what I want. This understanding comes from the gist of the innumerable experiences we have gained in our countless past lives. The Soul that resides inside each one of us has infinite power, infinite vision and knowledge, which are its inherent properties; and today it has with it a stock of experiences accumulated in countless of lives that it has passed through, which helps one decide that, “I don’t want this, I want something like that which I am not able to get.”
Life after life, as we evolve in our journey of development, we all are in search of happiness. There arises a desire inside us for something we think will give us happiness, and based on our understanding, we persevere to obtain that thing. Finally we do manage to get the thing; but by then a desire for the next new thing that we feel will give us happiness, has now arisen. Right from a particular desire cropping up unto that desire getting fulfilled, we gather a lot of experiences on the way, which build up wisdom. The new desire is on the new mile of our development and the same cycle continues, and takes us to the third mile of our development. Gradually our stock of experiences and the wisdom therefrom keep building up, until we reach a point where we happen to meet Gnani, the Enlightened One.
Gnani is a junction that every living being encounters during his journey of development, and from this junction, we get the correct diversion that puts us on route to permanent happiness!!! From Him, we obtain the wisdom to distinguish between what is temporary and what is permanent, and find our ultimate goal i.e. to pursue the permanent - the Pure Soul which is our real Self!!
A question may arise in the mind of those, who today already have an inclination towards experiencing the Soul, that, “Can I not gain this understanding from books and scriptures? I am enjoying reading those, so won’t they take me to the point of experiencing my Soul?”
“In Mahabarata, Lord Krishna gave the understanding of Pure Soul to Arjuna. Whatever Arjuna experienced consequently, was the result of 1:1 (one to one) communication between Lord Krishna and Arjuna.
As we know, Sanjay was given special vision, whereby he could see and narrate to Dhrutrashtra, word by word, whatever Lord Krishna said to Arjuna. Yet none of the two could experience what Arjuna experienced. Leave aside the experience, neither Sanjay nor King Dhrutrashtra could even understand what was said to Arjuna.
It was the one to one presence of Lord Krishna that helped Arjuna get Self-Realization; and when he followed the understanding given by Lord Krishna, he experienced the akarma dasha i.e. the state where one does not charge any new karma. With the help of the knowledge he gained from this experience, he finished all his discharge karmas and got liberation in the same life. However, Sanjay and Dhrutrashtra could not attain this wisdom, for it was not given to them one to one by Lord Krishna.”
Same thing applies to us as well. We cannot experience the knowledge that Arjuna attained by mere reading of scriptures. We require a Living Gnani, who is present one to one, to give us the right understanding and the real experience of our Self!!!
An image of a lit candle cannot remove the darkness within a room, but a lit candle can.rnSimilarly, scriptural knowledge cannot give us the actual experience of the Soul; it can only give us the information. To experience the Soul, we require Self Realization. It is only when the knowledge of Self is bestowed upon us by the Living Enlightened One that the experience of the Self begins.
Thereafter the awareness that ‘I am a Pure Soul’ remains spontaneous and natural. It exists even when we happen to wake up in the middle of the night. Things we ought to make an effort to remember, are all temporary! One does not have to remember the Soul, for it is permanent. Once our real nature as the Soul has been realized, we no more have to make any efforts to remember it.
In today’s era, Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan attained Self-Realization in 1958, he passed on the knowledge to Pujya Niruma and now Pujya Deepakbhai is giving this knowledge to thousands of people around the world. When such Gnani gives us Self-Realization, we get the right belief (understanding) of really ‘I am Pure Soul’. And then with His grace, the awareness of Pure Soul gradually increases and accordingly results in the experience of the Pure Soul!!
So the best way to learn wisdom, I would say, is to approach Gnani, the Enlightened One, and with His given understanding and experience solve all your puzzles in life.
To know more about the living Gnani please click on
https://www.dadabhagwan.org/spiritual-masters/pujya-deepakbhai/the-hidden-jewel/