Wisdom and its kinds

It is the wisdom that differentiates the wise men from the ordinary. It is the wisdom that makes wise men sagacious, prudent, equanimous, peaceful and truly happy being. The sages of the east categorize wisdom into three broad categories: the wisdom of the world, the wisdom of the Yoga and the wisdom of the Self. All of these three play important role for a seeker to gain inner peace and a truly happy state of mind.

Wisdom of the world refers to the knowledge of the outer world – the world that can be perceived by your five senses. The wisdom of the world helps you to gain understanding of the outer world – the nature, its objects and the people around you. Wisdom of the world is endless and can be further classified into numerous categories - science, accounting, sociology, biology, economics, engineering, mathematics, language, art are just to name a few.

Even the medical and biological knowledge comes under the arena of ‘wisdom of the world’ because it deals with the body which is part of the nature, not your true Self. It deals with the body organs that can be perceived by senses.

The wisdom of the Yoga refers to the knowledge of the Yogic chakras in our body, the Pranayaam (the breathing exercises), the Yogic postures and its practice. The wisdom of Yoga helps you to keep a healthy body and even gain control over the nature up to certain extent (like the art of levitation, walking over water or flying in the air). [I just want to mention that the word ‘Yoga’ has very broad and deep meaning. However I just want to differentiate between the wisdom of a Yogi and the wisdom of a Self realized one. Here the word Yoga is used as it is widely understood in the western world.]

The wisdom of the Self refers to the knowledge of your spirit or your soul or your true Self or omnipresent formless God, that resides in your heart too. The wisdom of the Self deals with the inner world – that cannot be perceived with the help of your five senses (eyes, nose, tongue, ears and sensation). It refers to the exploration of ‘Who am I?’, ‘What is God?’, ‘What is the relation between a being and the Supreme being?’

A few people would ask – what about the religious knowledge? In which category would you put that? I would say that most of the religions of the world contain all the three types of the wisdom. The major portion of the religions comes under the arena of ‘wisdom of the world’ – the divine stories of different incarnations of God, the tales of origin of life on earth, the description of heaven and hell, the detailed rituals, the mantras and the sophisticated prayers. All of this knowledge that makes you nothing more than a priest at a religious place belongs to the arena of ‘wisdom of the world’. Then there is another part of religion that helps you to gain control over nature and it comes under the arena of ‘the wisdom of Yoga’. However, the spiritual core of the religion belongs to the arena of ‘the wisdom of the Self’. This is the part of the religion that helps you gain the understanding of your true Self and the true omnipresent God, that makes you pious, peaceful and a better being.

We will discuss a few more subtle differences and the importance of the wisdom of the Self in the next blog.