-Trishna Patnaik

What is knowledge? Why is it important? Is it important at all? How will it help me? Is it tangible? How do I gain knowledge? Will it fail me? Where do I begin gaining knowledge? How do I rebuild my world from scratch? How will knowledge make me different? Is it ever late to gain knowledge? Is knowledge power?

These are some of the questions we have in mind when we hear the word knowledge. The answer to all these questions is that knowledge is like an ocean which has everything to offer. It is up to us to take the things we want out of it. The deeper we get into the ocean, the more we will seek and gain. If we float only on the surface then we will be able to achieve only those things we feel comfortable in. If we only stand near the shore and view it then we can look at things which we can reach out to. If we walk away from it we set aside a whole new wave of opportunities and it submerges back into the ocean.

The point is taking a plunge into the ocean for starters. If need be wet your feet a little and then move towards the ocean and then finally immerse your body in it. The vast depths of knowledge can be seeped in only if one allows oneself to engage in it and receive it. That is what makes one aware of one’s thinking. When you are aware of your thinking, you can action. As knowledge is not power, it is the potential power to act. Knowledge is also the power of patience in a world obsessed with early achievement. So it is the ability to build your world from scratch. This is what forms your habits and gives you the strength to be different.

All information gasped is liberating. It makes for the premise of progress in every society and every family. It makes the best weapon when clubbed with a pen do fight any form of injustice. Knowledge is also the best way to defeat your inner demons. It gives you the power of now. That helps in transforming human consciousness and discovering the truth within you. Knowledge makes you pragmatic and it empowers you. It keeps you engaged and you are never alone. If you study hard even your stillness will speak up.

The untamed mind can never decipher anything as it is all over the place. It jumps like a monkey from one place to another. Hence, power is to think fast and slow to follow a steady rhythm. This is where knowledge plays a role. It opens up the doors to infinite possibilities that revolve around the realms of education, solution, analysis, information, experience, and learning. It is food from the brain.

So basically the only good lands have up been knowledge and the only badlands up been ignorance. Making your brain a knowledge building gallery is what will enhance your power in a new light. Paint your picture; build on it as if you are constructing your building from scratch. Every brick has been looked into, every niche was been carved, every inch had been measured, every alignment has been checked and every corner has been shaped. This is what gives rise to the perfect in house model for your brain.

What are the areas of knowledge then? The ways of knowing through Emotion, Sense perception, Reason, and Language. You can tap into them by way of Natural Sciences, Human Sciences, History, The Arts, Ethics, Mathematics, Indigenous knowledge groups, and Religious knowledge systems. Knowledge is managed through four verticals: process, advice, improvement, and people. So basically the transaction is between Wisdom, Knowledge, Data, and Information which flows into making expertise. With the knowledge you should educate yourself, inform yourself, and think for yourself. Zeal and Passion without knowledge is the basic prescription for disaster. Self- Discipline begins with the mastery of your thoughts, if you don’t control what you think you can’t control what you do. Knowledge is a tool for Self- Discipline.

Knowledge is like an umbrella which cannot stop the rain but can make us stand in the rain. It will give you the confidence to face any challenge in life. It gives you the path towards understanding been an art. So only if you apply knowledge and share knowledge do you become truly invincible. You should do that with enthusiasm as that is what pulls the switch.

The more you read the more things you will know. The more you learn the more places you will go. If repression has been the connecting link between power, knowledge, and sexuality since the classical age, it stands for a reason that we will not be able to free ourselves from it except at a considerable cost. To minimize that cost we must have a considerable amount of knowledge.

We must learn that it is not the activity of the subject of knowledge that we take up that produces the useful or resistance to power but the processes or struggles that transverse the same. Knowledge shared is power multiplied. It is always a work in progress. The Enlightenment is not emancipator. It is always how your body and your emotions are shaped towards power.

Truth is produced by power. Knowledge does not make one free. Each society had its own ‘Truth Discourse’ which presupposes some social power relationships. So there is no outside to power. We cannot escape it as we are embedded in the web of power relations. So knowledge is the key to various possibilities that can be savored upon.

The key is to believe in the power of knowledge which leads to positivity, goodness, and love. This can control access to advancement and opportunity. So eventually knowledge is what you gain from. It is your profit. So treasure your knowledge and practice it. As every addition to true knowledge is an addition to human power. The one thorough sign of exhibiting knowledge is the power of teaching. Enough power is gained by sharing knowledge, not by hoarding it. So it is important to question your desire and emotions if they are streamlined or not.

It is best to delve into the correct form of knowledge as false knowledge is worst than ignorance. So knowledge becomes like telling the past and wisdom is predicting the future. To create your garden of knowledge which if not cultivated will not be harvested. Learn something every day with the power of knowledge and let go of something every day with the power of wisdom.

Learning is not compulsory but neither is survival. A little knowledge is worth more than much knowledge just lying idle. So when you invest in knowledge, you pay the best interest. True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. So to achieve a solution to all your problems you need to have the right knowledge. You will have to find the balance. That is achieved when knowledge does not come to you but you come to knowledge.

Then you find your balance between work and service. That is when you work for a living and find satisfaction by doing service. So if you are not willing to learn nobody can help you, but if you are willing to learn then nobody can stop you. So more knowledge you have lesser the ego, the more the ego you have lesser the knowledge. So that makes the anecdote that a good life is the one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. As when you have knowledge others light their candles in it. So that makes knowledge the life of the mind. We have to understand that knowledge will give you power but character will give you respect. So when you activate your knowledge you convert adversity into prosperity.

This is where opinions come into play. When there is a cross-exchange we see that opinion comes in between knowledge and ignorance. It is the middle ground. So when there is sharing of knowledge opinions do come in place. So it is from where the province of knowledge speaks and the privilege of wisdom listens. So basically one is thinking. Now that is progress.

Non- thinking is the stagnation of the individual. Thinking is what leads to action. So hence think and then speak as wise words are like seeds. The more you scatter them, the more they will grow into infinite gardens of knowledge. So never confuse knowledge with wisdom. Knowledge will help you make a living and wisdom will help you make a life. So the thing is if you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain.

So immerse yourself with knowledge from all corners, from all nooks and crannies, from all the experiences, from all the desires, from all the books, from all the people you meet, from all the sufferings, from all the happiness.

About the author

Trishna Patnaik, Mumbai

By qualification, she has done her Bsc (in Life Sciences) and MBA (in Marketing), but she is an artist by choice. Self-taught Trishna has been practicing art for over 14 years now. After she had a professional stint in various reputed corporates, she realized that she wanted to do something more meaningful. She found her true calling in her passion, which is painting. Trishna is now a full-time professional painter pursuing her passion to create and explore to the fullest. She says, "It’s a road less traveled but a journey that I look forward to every day."

Trishna does fancy the art of creative writing and is dappling her hands in that too just to soak in the experience and have an engagement with readers, wanderers, and thinkers.

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