Difference between Knowledge of self, of matter and education.
Knowledge is that which does not have to be remembered, which becomes your life. Vidya is that which does not become a memory.
(Do not write on the walls of the house that greed is a sin, but your eyes, your hands, your face says that greed is a sin. Your overall personality says that greed is a sin, then you have Vidya (knowledge as per the mystic who has written the Upanishad). Upanishads have given great respect to Vidya. That word is highly valued. It is a life changing alchemy. What we think of as science is only a means of making a living. A system for running a livelihood. One
man is a doctor, one man is an engineer, one man is a shopkeeper. All of them have knowledge, but with them life does not change/transforms, only life runs. Life is not new with them, it is only safe. No new flower blossoms in life from them, only the roots of life do not dry up. There is no joy in life from them, but security, arrangements and order are created to avoid suffering. -Osho, Ishavasya Upanishad, #KindleQuotes)
Originally published in Hindi on June 28, 2024. Translated with the help of google translate and edited to match the intent of Osho.
The sage of Ishavasya Upanishad says about Vidya and Avidya as below:-
“अन्यदेवाहुर्विद्यया अन्यदाहुरविद्यया।
“Anyadevahurvidyaaya Anyadahurvidyaaya.
इति शुश्रुम धीराणां ये नस्तद्विचचक्षिरे।। 10।।
Iti shushrum dheeranaam ye nastadvichchakshire. 10.
विद्या से और ही फल बतलाया गया है तथा अविद्या से और ही फल बतलाया है। ऐसा हमने बुद्धिमान पुरुषों से सुना है, जिन्होंने हमारे प्रति उसकी व्याख्या की थी।। 10।।
vidya se aura hi fal batalaya gaya hai tatha avidya se aura hi fal batalaya hai. aisa hamane buddhiman purushon se suna hai, jinhone hamare prati usaki vyakhya ki thi.. 10
Meaning : Different results have been told from Vidya and different results have been told from Avidya. We have heard this from wise men, who explained it to us. 10.
Osho explains this in the seventh chapter of his book Ishavasyopanishad ‘Vah Avyakhya Hai’.(means He is inexpressible) (I will keep sharing my experiences with you in brackets and in italics):-
Upanishads do not mean Avidya as mere ignorance. And Vidya does not mean mere knowledge.
By Avidya, Upanishads mean physical knowledge. Avidya means such knowledge by which one does not know oneself, but everything else is known. Avidya is the name of material knowledge.
Generally, if you search in the dictionary, Avidya will mean ignorance.
But according to sages of Upanishads Avidya means such knowledge which appears like knowledge, but still the person himself remains ignorant (Their knowledge about self is borrowed from scriptures of their religions. Basically it means that they do not know the answer of ‘Who am I.’ from within.). Such knowledge by which we come to know everything else, but remain unaware of ourselves. The knowledge which deceives us, such knowledge is called Avidya in Upanishads. If translated properly, Avidya will mean science. This will sound very strange. Avidya will mean material knowledge, knowledge of others.
And Vidya means self-knowledge. Vidya does not mean only knowledge.
(That is also why it is not right to put Goddess Saraswati’s picture in any school/college because there the student only get education. It seems absolutely appropriate to put Savitribai Phule’s picture there. It seems that it is also wrong to call students as Vidhyarthi and school and college as Vidyalaya or Vishwavidyalaya respectively. It is because the wrong meaning of the word Vidya is being taken. It will be more appropriate to call school as Shikshalay, college as Vishwashikshalay and student as Shikshaarthi, this will keep the children of this country constantly aware that there is still a need for knowledge. They will have to make a lot of efforts in this world only then they will start attaining it and they will have to keep attaining it through constant courageous experiments in life. This will also prevent undue arrogance in children as they will remain in learning mode.)
Vidya means transformation.(As per Upanishad)
The knowledge that leaves you without changing will not be called knowledge by the Upanishads, it will not be called vidya. I have learnt something and even after learning/knowing it I remain the same as I was when I did not know it, then such knowledge will not be called vidya by the Upanishads.
Vidya will be called only when I get transformed as soon as I know it. I have learnt that I have changed. I have learnt that I have become different. I do not remain the same after knowing it, as I was without knowing it.
If I remain the same, then it is ignorance. If I am transformed, then it is vidya.
The knowledge that is not just an addition, that does not add some knowledge to you, but is a transformation, a transformation, changes you, makes you something else, gives you a new birth, is called vidya by the Upanishads.
Socrates has said a small sutra in the same sense, in the sense of Upanishads. He has said, Knowledge is Virtue.
Knowledge is virtue? This was debated for hundreds of years in Greece. Because generally we think, what is the relation of virtue with knowledge alone?
A man knows that anger is bad. Still anger does not go away. A man knows that stealing is bad. Still stealing does not stop. A man knows that greed is bad. Still greed continues.
But Socrates says that the one who knows that greed is bad, his greed will go away.
The one who knows that greed is bad and greed does not go away, then it is ignorance, then it is a deception of knowing. It is false knowledge. Delusion has arisen. The test of knowledge is that it becomes conduct immediately, it does not even have to be made. If someone thinks that first we will know and then we will mould it into conduct, then it is not knowledge, it is ignorance.
As soon as we know – as if Something is placed in front of you and you realise that it is poison, you realise that it is poison, your hand was about to raise the cup towards your lips, and then you stopped. You realised that it is poison and the cup fell from your hand. If knowing itself becomes conduct, then it is knowledge.
You don’t know.
You don’t know that anger is really hell.
Is it possible that someone knows that anger is hell and still doesn’t jump out of it?
Buddha has said somewhere that I explained to a person. His life was full of misery, pain, there was nothing in his life except worries. I told him to leave all these worries and come out. I will show you the way.
The man said, you tell me the way now, then later I will try to come out slowly, gradually.
So Buddha said that you are like a man whose house is on fire, and we tell him that his house is on fire; and he says that it is a great kindness that you told me, now I will try to come out gradually, slowly.
Buddha said, it would have been better if that man had said that you are lying, I don’t see any fire. But he doesn’t say this. He says that I agree, you are right, there is a fire, but I will come out slowly.
If the fire is really visible, does anyone come out slowly?
He jumps out. The one who tells may be left behind.
The one who knows that there is a fire will come out first. He will also thank the house outside.
So Buddha said that you say that I agree that there is a fire, but you cannot see the fire. You are saying yes in vain. You do not even want to take the trouble of searching. You do not even want to try to test my words.
You did not even open your eyes and see all around that is there really a fire?
You accepted it and hence this question arises in your mind that there is a fire, now I will come out slowly. Tell me some method, some technique as to how I can come out.
When someone tells me that he knows that anger is bad and still he is unable to get rid of it, then I tell him that it would be better if he knows that he does not know that anger is bad.
You know that anger is good. We go on doing good things.
But that is not learning.
Then, what kind of learning will it be?
You will have to know yourself that anger is bad. You will have to go through anger. You will have to suffer in the fire of anger, you will have to bear the pain and suffering of anger.
When all the body parts burn in the fire of anger and the soul is heated up and life turns into smoke, then you will not have to ask anyone that anger is bad. Then you will not have to go to anyone to understand that anger is bad. And then you will not have to find any method, any way, any sadhana to get out of anger. Just knowing that anger is fire, you get rid of anger. Such knowledge is called learning. The Upanishads call that knowledge Vidya, which is liberation in itself.
The knowledge which is not liberation in itself, is not Vidya.
If you ask the Upanishads, what is our knowing?
The Upanishads will call our knowing Avidya. They will not call our knowing Vidya. Because our knowing does not touch us at all. It does not change us at all. It does not touch us at all.
We remain the same, the knowing goes on increasing. Knowing is like a collection, we remain far away. The collection in the vault of knowing goes on increasing, we remain the same. The vault goes on getting bigger, the collection goes on increasing. It is the accumulation, which we are now calling knowledge. The one who considers this as knowledge, will go astray. Understand this as Avidya.
Understand only that as Vidya which does not get attached to you, changes you. Which does not get accumulated with you, transforms you.
Knowledge is that which does not have to be remembered, which becomes your life. Vidya is that which does not become a memory, which becomes your life.
It is not that you understand from memory that anger is bad. It is that your conduct says that anger is bad.
It is not that you write on the walls of your house that greed is a sin, otherwise your eyes should say, your hands should say, your face should say that greed is a sin. Your entire personality should say that greed is a sin, then there is Vidya.
The Upanishads have given great respect to Vidya. They have given a great value to that word. It is the alchemy of changing life. What we consider Vidya is only a system to earn a livelihood. A system to earn a livelihood. One man is a doctor, one man is an engineer, one man is a shopkeeper. They all have Vidya, but they do not change life, they only keep life going. They do not make life new, they only make it secure. They do not make any new flowers bloom in life, they only do not dry up the roots of life. They do not bring any joy in life, but security, arrangements, arrangements are created for sorrow.
Vidya is that which does not move life, but changes it. Due to which life does not move forward, but rises upwards.
Remember, Avidya is horizontal – it moves in the line of the horizon.
Vidya is vertical – it rises towards the sky.
Avidya is like a bullock cart, it moves on the ground. It does not have a take-off like an airplane. It does not leave the ground and rise up. It keeps moving on the ground. The journey from birth to death is complete, but the plane does not change, the plane remains the same. The plane on which we are born, the plane on which we die.
Often the swing itself is the grave. There is not much difference, the plane is the same, we remain there. Horizontal, it keeps moving in the line of the horizon. Everyone finds their own grave. But it is not very far from the swings. And even if it is far, there is no difference in the plane. The plane is the same, the level is the same.
Knowledge is vertical, it rises towards the sky, moves upwards. It goes upwards. The plane changes. You do not remain the same. Know that you have become different.
Buddha or Mahavira or Krishna or Jesus or Socrates stand near us, but they are not with us. They stand right next to us, their bodies are touching our bodies, yet they are not with us. They are on some other peak. It seems that only their bodies are with us. Their existence is not with us. They have gone through knowledge. They are wise. (They have Vidya)
This sutra of the Upanishad says, ignorance has its own qualities, knowledge has its own qualities. Ignorance has its own qualities, ignorance has its own use, utility.
The Upanishad does not say that ignorance(Avidya) should be destroyed. The Upanishad says, do not consider ignorance(Avidya) as knowledge(Vidya) – that’s all.
It is not that you keep moving towards the sky and do not live on the ground. The truth is that those who want to rise in the sky, they too have to keep their feet on the ground.
Nietzsche has said somewhere that the roots of a tree that wants to touch the sky have to touch the underworld. The higher the tree goes, the lower it goes. The tree that tries to touch the stars in the sky, aspires to, its roots have to go down and down. The deeper the roots, the higher it can rise.
The Upanishads do not deny ignorance(Avidya). This is also a big delusion. I would like to tell this to you. Because due to this delusion the East has suffered so much pain, so much suffering, which cannot be measured. (Hindu people of East still considers themselves as possessing Vidya and carnivorous individuals of East of West as possessing Avidya. It is just because they have read Upanishad and Vedas and are vegetarians while it is just accumulation of knowledge. While Osho clearly says that those who have discovered something or helped in discovery are all having Vidya and such people are now more in numbers in the West.)
(And this is the reason why our country, despite having lakhs of PhDs, could give only a few inventions to this world because we did not give due respect to the education given in schools and colleges, rather we did the same to him as we did to Buddha. Buddha was considered the eleventh incarnation and started worshipping him and his messages were burnt. On the same lines, schools and colleges were just named Vidyalaya and Vishwavidyalaya but his education was not given due respect, it was considered second grade ‘ignorance’. But because in our view the first grade knowledge is Upanishad and no arrangements were made to make its education available to the common people. Upanishads were also not followed but were worshipped. Now the situation has become such that like a washerman’s dog, neither is he of the house nor of the river.)
– -Osho, Ishavasya Upanishad — Ishavasya Upanishad by Osho, #7, He is indescribable. Copyrights Osho International Foundation, Pune, India
Some suggestions from my experience of the spiritual journey that I have undertaken by applying Osho’s experiments while living a worldly life:-
Living the worldly life with totality, living life in an authentic way i.e. one from inside and outside with honesty, serving people selflessly without any discrimination and being free from all bondages (religious, educational, caste, colour etc.) these three have proved to be important catalysts in my life which can help one to dive deeper.
(Buddha is passing through a village, Anand is with him. They are talking about something; a fly came and sat on Buddha’s shoulder, he shoo it away — as if anyone would shooed it away. Then he stopped, he was frightened, as if he had made a big mistake. Then he raised his hand, consciously took it near his shoulder and shooed away the fly — which was no longer there!
Anand asked, what are you doing?
Buddha said, I shooed it away unconsciously; one should shoo away consciously. Even a fly should be shooed away consciously; because if unconsciousness can happen in shooing away a fly, then it can happen in anything else too. Such a small thing that unconsciousness happened in shooing away a fly — that he kept talking and shooed away the fly.
Now what mistake was there in this?
Neither the fly died, nor any violence happened, nor anything happened.
what is there to worry about in this?
But Buddha is worried. Even this little soot(of unconscious act) will be a big soot on his white sheet(of awareness). - Osho. Book: Bhaj Govindam Mudhmate (O dumb keep remembering your conscious state) #kindlequotes)
As soon as I read this suggestion of Buddha and put it into practice in my life, I started experimenting with opening the inner eye or using awareness while brushing my teeth in the morning.
It does not took a long way to me to experience a thoughtless state. You may find this suitable too, otherwise for most people, the dynamic meditation suggested by Osho is the best. There are 110 other meditation techniques discovered by Indian mystic Gorakhnath about 500 years ago and further refined by Osho, which can be used and can be practiced appropriately in daily life.
Namaste…..I write my comments from personal experiences of my inner journey. This post may include teachings from mystics around the world that I consider to be relevant today. For more information about me and to connect with me on social media platforms, take a look at my website https://linktr.ee/Joshuto to join my social media links, or subscribe to my YouTube channel and/or listen to podcasts etc.
English translation Originally published at https://philosia.in on May 25, 2025.