Knowledge and knower – two sides of the same coin
Imagine that you visited a nutritionist to consult him about weight loss. However, you are surprised to see that he is overweight. He is an extremely nice guy who has all the knowledge in the world about weight loss. He explains to all methods of reducing weight.
Would you trust his advice?
The answer seems to be no for most people. The first thought that comes to mind is that if this person is really a good nutritionist, why can’t he reduce his own weight?
You just can’t trust his knowledge.
Knower and Knowledge
Logically speaking, there is no connection between knowledge and the knower. After all, if the same knowledge or advice is given to you by a person who is fit and healthy, you will have no difficulty in taking the advice. But here is a man who advises you to be fit, but is himself unfit.
People find it difficult to separate the knowledge from the knower. In fact, the two are believed to be so inseparable that you can reconstruct one from the other. We have reconstructed the images of Jesus and Buddha from the knowledge they gave to the world. Hindus have restored images of Ram, Krishna, Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, etc. based on the knowledge they are associated with. There is no one who has seen them, but their pictures are in every temple. I think their portraits were also not taken during their lifetime, most people believe in the authenticity of these photos as their personality and the knowledge they imparted.
People know from experience that Jesus Christ must have been a thin man, dressed in the most ordinary clothes, with a beard, as he would not have cared about his appearance. Similarly, people perceive the Buddha as a man of peace, meditating for enlightenment and seeking knowledge within.
What is Knowledge?
Plato defined knowledge as “justified true belief.” His definition of knowledge recognizes that belief and truth are not sufficient for knowledge; that knowledge is subject to true beliefs. This means that knowledge is actually a form of belief that has been found to be true by the knower.
For example, if you know that exercise is good for health, it is because you believe this statement, ie. “exercise is good for health” as it must have been proven true by your experience. Just imagine that you noticed that most people who exercise get sick, you would not have acquired such knowledge. Even if you observed that people are equally likely to become unhealthy with or without exercise, you would never believe such “knowledge”.
Thus, having certain knowledge means that you not only believe the knowledge, but also have established it to be true based on your own experience or based on the experience of someone you trust. People are quick to reject knowledge if their beliefs are proven false in real life. For example, if you believed that daily prayer to God could cure cancer and you saw your friend dying of cancer despite daily prayer, you cannot have this knowledge.
Knowledge is transformed
Knowledge is so powerful that it can easily be said that a person knows himself by the knowledge he has. This is because; knowledge is so rooted in the soul that no one can oppose it. Everyone follows knowledge as a slave follows his master.
If you really know that daily exercise is necessary for your health, there is no way to avoid your daily exercise. If at all most people do not follow a daily exercise routine, despite having such knowledge, it is because they have seen that many people who are healthy do not exercise every day and many people who exercise daily are unhealthy. They themselves may realize that they have stayed healthy throughout their lives despite not doing any exercise.
However, if they fall ill and the medicines fail to cure them and the doctor advises them a daily excise to cure his disease, the same person can start following the routine as he believes in the doctor. If he is cured of his disease by daily exercise, he himself begins to believe this statement and the same becomes his knowledge.
In this way, experience can change knowledge, as it can shatter many old beliefs and create new beliefs.
Knowledge must succeed like man
All human beings know this secret of man that no one does anything against the knowledge he possesses. Hence, they closely observe the synergy between knowledge and what is known as knowing, one automatically revealing the other.
Thus knowledge becomes man in real life. It must succeed in the race of different kinds of knowledge. Winning the competition is the only way to prove that the knowledge is authentic. If the knower succeeds, knowledge wins the race. Once Mahatma Gandhi humbly accepted
I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on the largest possible scale.
Yet even modern people have accepted “Truth and Non-violence” only because Gandhi achieved success by following these principles. If it failed, these principles would never be accepted by the world.
Thus the success of knowledge is actually the success of man (the knower). Thus the knowledge of truth and non-violence is personified in Gandhi. It was accepted because Gandhi succeeded in the same world with competing knowledges like violence, racism, imperialism. Imagine that if World War II had been won by Hitler, the principles of autocracy, racism, fascism, Nazism would have become undisputed principles for the modern world, and no one would be talking about truth and non-violence.
Knowledge is a living thing
Knowledge is not something that is written in books of words and frozen in time. Knowledge is always alive as it is always being tested by all knowers of knowledge. The knower has no choice as he is bound to follow the knowledge he has. Therefore, knowledge is always put to the test. It is born, reaches its peak, and then dies only after giving birth to new knowledge with a different name but bearing a close resemblance to it. It has a life of its own, for it survives even often after the death of the knower. Almost all religions such as Buddhism, Christianity and Islam become powerful only after the death of their founder. Yet they all represent a man who personifies knowledge in human form.
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