Bhagavatam-daily 149 – 11.09.24 – Our learning depends on our thirst for learning

Shrimad Bhagwatam 11.9.24 evam gurubhyatebhyah esham e shikshitamatihi svatmopashikshitam buddhim sunum evadatah prabho evam gurubhyatebhyah evam thus in this way gurubhyah etebhyah these things esham e shikshitamatihi these things I have learned this knowledge I have acquired this is how my consciousness has become enriched svatmopashikshitam buddhim svatmopashikshitam buddhim svatma here atma refers to the body because the body is what we usually identify ourselves with svatmopashikshitam svatmopashikshitam that means what I have learned from my atma, from my body buddhim what I have learned, the knowledge that I have acquired, the intelligence that I have developed sunum evadatah prabho here now, sunum evadatah as I speak it, prabho oh master oh king, prabho is a respectful way in which he is being Maharaj Yadu is being addressed by the avadhut brahmana so the avadhut brahmana said that I will tell you what I have learned from 24 gurus and he has told what he has learned from those 24 gurus now he is telling what he has learned additionally from the 25th guru so essentially the 25th guru is the body itself and in one sense the other gurus are external to him the body is internal to him or his body is more intimately connected with him so in that sense he has kept this in a slightly separate category the important thing is that among all these gurus it is described that all these things I have learned but how I have learned them actually I have learned them by by observation by inference by a very sharp intelligence in general our learning depends on our thirst for learning all the things that the avadhut brahmana observed it could very well have been that he could have observed them and learned nothing from them because it was not that any of these things were then in none of these incidents did anyone actually come and teach him anything no it was he himself who observed then he inferred and that’s how he learned so he could very well have if he had been self obsessed he could very well have passed through these events without having learned even one single thing from those events he was able to learn from them because he had the eagerness to learn because he had that immense desire to learn and in life life can be a continuous learning experience although sometimes we use the word learning experience in a negative sense to refer to unpleasant experiences which we go through and which we have to endure and survive but it doesn’t have to be like that learning can also be a positive experience where we by observing others can by observing things around us we can be constantly learning you know whether it is you know Einstein said that actually the spirit of curiosity is the womb or spirit of wonder of curiosity of being thrilled at the wonder of nature around us that is the womb of all science and in fact that is the womb of all knowledge whether it is scientific knowledge or spiritual knowledge anybody who has learned anything it’s by observing at one level when we practice spiritual life we want to we don’t want to let our senses wander here and there because the senses get caught in the pursuit of sense gratification and thus they trap us in material consciousness and material existence so that is definitely valid and important at the same time the world is not just an arena for entanglement the world can also serve as an arena for enlightenment if we look at the world not as a place for enjoying at the gross sensory level but instead see it as a place for becoming for learning the truths of life then in this world also we can be continuously enlightened what Krishna has taught through scripture he many of those truths he demonstrates through nature so for example in the biblical tradition scripture and nature are thought of as the two books of god and they are said to be complementary that what god has taught through scripture he demonstrates through nature so the bhagavatam especially in this section of ayila gita in the section of the bhikshu gita of the demonstrates this keen eagerness to learn and the result of such eagerness in terms of our getting enlightened so we don’t have to reserve learning to the times when we are studying scripture or the times when we are when we are say attending classes we don’t have to divorce our spiritual life and our spiritual learning from our material life and material learning now we we are actually at all moments of life conscious significant most of the lessons that he talks about are spiritual lessons are lessons of detachment and of disentanglement from material existence of being absorbed in the spiritual pursuit the pursuit of spiritual reality at one level we could say that anybody who has a eagerness to learn can learn by being observant and this applies even to material life you know of a say a cricketer who plays at a national level suddenly gets an opportunity to play at international level and then sees first hand how the international how international cricketers handle pressure and himself that same cricketer also goes to that pressure and sees and in that pressure core institution learns ok this is how such institutions are to be dealt with so even that is a positive learning so now our learning depends on our thirst for learning this is a universal principle that applies to spiritual life as well as material life at the same time material learning doesn’t last for long we may learn how to become a better cricketer a better businessman a better accountant a better administrator so now that is also good we should all we can and we should have a learning mood even in our worldly professions because by that we can improve our contribution we can do better justice to the challenge that Krishna has given us and we can do better service to Krishna through our worldly activities at the same time while describing the 20 items of knowledge Krishna states that recognizing that spiritual knowledge alone is eternal and therefore searching for that to that that characterizes knowledge so though we can and should learn about material things also by living in the world but also we can keep our eyes and ears open to learn spiritual truths taught in scripture and thereby by such learning strengthen our spiritual intelligence strengthen our spiritual determination and thus keep marching onwards towards Krishna even when we are walking around in this world doing our various activities we don’t have to deliberately peer around in the world hoping to learn something spiritual no that will probably get us captivated by sense objects and captured by them rather we focus primarily on doing whatever services we are to do and while doing those services whatever we encounter rather than shutting our eyes to them we learn from it and thus as the brahmana has learned we can also learn from many worldly phenomena which will act