I have been a bit flummoxed by things going on around me these days… where I have encountered many Learned people in the course of my daily travails… people who are "qualified" enough to pass patronizing judgements, letting us mere mortals benefit from their exalted knowledge and people who proudly proclaim how "learned" they are… This reminded me of something my Sanskrit teacher used to say…. As you learn more, you realise there's so much you already don’t know…. It makes you realise how foolish you are… And that in turn reminded me of a poem I had once read… A Little Knowledge is a dangerous thing, by Alexander Pope...
A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fired at first sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts ;
While from the bounded level of our mind
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind,
But, more advanced, behold with strange surprise
New distant scenes of endless science rise !
So pleased at first the towering Alps we try,
Mount o’er the vales, and seem to tread the sky ;
The eternal snows appear already past,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last ;
But those attained, we tremble to survey
The growing labours of the lengthened way ;
The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes,
Hill peep o’er hills, and Alps on Alps arise ! The lines "
But those attained, we tremble to survey, The growing labours of the lengthened way, The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes, Hill peep o’er hills, and Alps on Alps arise! " have always made me realise the folly of believing we know all there is to know… We might conquer one frontier, and feel exhilirated, though tired... but soon we will realize that knowledge (self or otherwise), is like a mountain... Hills peep over hills, and Alps on Alps rise...
Alexander Pope, in all his humility, made little of his own knowledge… but are we capable enough of doing that? Or maybe in these days and times, nothing matters?
P.S. ---- Peace!!!