Let us pray at the Shree Charans (holy feet) with folded hands and with Kottan Kot Dandaut (countless prostrations) and Shukrana (thanks) to Agam Agochar Alikh Adikh Anant Beyant Dhan Dhan Paar Braham Parmesar (Supreme Lord) and Dhan Dhan Guru for helping us understand the following :
- What is the difference between divine knowledge and divine wisdom?
- When and how does divine knowledge become divine wisdom?
1. What is the difference between divine knowledge and divine wisdom?
Knowledge is like an available, off-the-shelf commodity for you, the seeker. Knowledge is something which has been developed by somebody else based upon their experience and put in a form to be used by others. Knowledge is a source of information for the learners and students.
As long as this information is available to you and remains unused by you to bring benefit to you and your society, it just remains as knowledge. But when it is actually put into practice then it becomes your wisdom. It becomes a wisdom for the student, it becomes a wisdom for the practitioner of the knowledge.
2. When and how does divine knowledge become divine wisdom?
Wisdom is something which you earn through daily practise of knowledge gained. By doing so you become wiser and wiser. To see, feel and experience the knowledge is called the practice of wisdom. By putting into practise what you have learnt, the wisdom gained becomes a part of your soul mind and body.
A practical example is the existance of Gurbani written and stored in the form of Siri Guru Granth Sahib. This is an excellent treasure of divine knowledge that was practiced by the Guru Sahibans and all the Sants and Bhagats. It was physically experienced by these great spiritual souls and then very kindly by all these Puran Braham Gyanis conveyed to Guru Arjun Dev Ji (Pancham Patshah Ji) who very kindly gave it the form of the Ad Granth (scriptures of the Primal Lord) by putting it all at one place.
For a normal person it is an excellent source of divine knowledge. It contains all the information concerning :-
- the existance of the Akal Purakh from the beginning and even before the beginning,
- the ways and means of leading a life for a common person that will take him back to the Almighty,
- the divine laws that are mandatory for reaching the Dargah of Akal Purakh,
- the qualities and attributes that take us away from God,
- the qualities and attributes that take us closer to the God.
SGGS JI is a recent source of information about :-
- Agam Agochar Anant Beyant Dhan Dhan Paar Braham Parmesar
- His Sants and Bhagats,
- His Naam and the praise of Naam,
- the praise of Akal Purakh,
- the praise of Sants, Braham Gyanis and Bhagats.
However, SGGS Ji only remains a source of divine knowledge and doesn’t make you any wiser and higher in spirituality and divinity until you practice it in your daily life. For example, you can read SGGS Ji about what is naam and how it goes into your heart by the grace of the Guru. But, the Naam doesn’t actually go in to your Hirda just by reading about it. That only happens when you get the Gurparsaad of Satnaam and then practice it by doing Naam Simran. The Naam doesn’t really go into your Sat Sarovars (7 chakras) and enlighten them and open them up for a continuous flow of spiritual energy until you practice Naam Simran. Naam will not go in to your Rom Rom (each every atom of your body ) until you physically dedicate yourself to longer sessions of Smadhee and keep on doing Naam Ki Kamai (earning naam). The Naam doesn’t go in to the Dassam Duaar (tenth door/crown chakra) and opens up the door to the Dargah for you until you dedicate your body, mind and wealth to the Gur and Guru and do Naam Simran. You don’t really give your body until you do “Phyical Body Seva” and the highest seva with the body is physically sitting down at Amritvela and doing Naam Simran. You don’t collect the Naam wealth until you practically engage yourself in Naam Simran.
Similarly you don’t earn “Wealth Seva” (Dhan Ki Seva) until you actually physically give one tenth of your earnings to the Guru. And you don’t earn “Mind Seva” (Munn Ki Seva) until you physically leave your own wisdom and the worldly wisdom and follow the Guru’s words.
So in this way complete surrender to the Guru constitutes the surrender of body, mind and wealth. Do Naam Simran and Seva. Until you do it you will never be able to earn that divine knowledge and it will just remain like a commodity available to you for usage. But it will only become your wisdom when you physically and practically do it and earn it. Then you become wiser by that piece of divine wisdom. This means that you will become divinely wiser, which will enhance your divinity and spirituality.
Whatever is written by the Puran Braham Gyanis and Guru Sahibans should not be merely treated as a source of divine knowledge or the divine knowledge and just be satisfied with its reading only. It will not make you any wiser unless you do it, then it will become your divine wisdom. By doing it you will earn the wisdom and benefit from the divine knowledge available to you.
Making use of the divine knowledge and practically doing it will make you a Sant Hirda and fill your heart with all the divine qualities and make you divinely a very wise and spiritually a very high soul and Hirda.
All the priceless diamonds and jewels of divine knowledge are available to you, but you will have to earn them by doing the Gurbani and then they will come and stay inscribed in the crown of your Hirda for ever and you will become an encyclopedia of divine wisdom. Until you earn it it will remain as an available commodity to you and will become yours only after you earn it by practising in your daily life. This is how a person becomes a Puran Braham Gyani by listening, accepting and doing Gurbani.
For the Guru Sahibans and Sants and Bhagats the Gurbani was not a piece of divine knowledge, but it was a collection of divine wisdom, because they earned it, they did it and experienced it in the real eternal sense, they did the complete internal pilgrimage by becoming Gurbani themselves, they were walking encyclopedia of the entire divine wisdom. Similarly Gurbani is an excellent collection of divine rules and laws – divine knowledge and will not become a wisdom for you until you do Gurbani in your daily life and earn it and become wiser by doing it and closer to the source – Ik Oankaar Satnaam Satgur Parsaad.
Always remember you will not become wiser by just reading Gurbani, you will become wiser by doing Gurbani. You will not become wiser by memorizing Gurbani, but you will become wiser by practicing Gurbani in your daily life. You will not become wiser just by reading or listening to the words of a Sant, but you will become wiser only by practically following the writings and words of a Sant in your life. Like a doctor becomes wiser and wiser by practicing medicine in real life situations. Like a surgeon becomes wiser by performing more and more surgeries. Like an engineer becomes wiser by implementing his ideas in the real world. Like a teacher becomes a real good teacher and a wiser teacher by physically teaching the subject to his students. Like a mother becomes wiser by excercising her motherhod in the most productive manner. Like a father becomes wiser by excercising his fatherhood in a very positive manner.
The same applies to the seeker, by applying the divine knowledge in daily life you become wiser and wiser.
Dassan Das