Thursday, March 8, 2007

Thirst for Knowledge

When I was a young boy, I was full of curiosity & wonder. I was very fond of asking questions & wanted to know everything. This thirst for knowledge is aptly described in this sentence from ‘Contact’, one of my favourite books...
"Since I first gained the use of reason, my inclination toward learning has been so violent and strong that neither the scoldings of other people... nor my own reflections... have been able to stop me from following this natural impulse that God gave me."
We all can identify with this feeling. It is part of human nature. It was so important to us as children, to know the answer to every question we could think of. How easy it was to ask a question & accept a simple answer!
So many people settle for whatever is told to them. The greed for knowledge is still there in them, but they have conveniently learned to ignore it. It takes great determination to keep it alive in you. But the reward, the great satisfaction derived from arriving at the truth is unparalleled.
We should not give in to blindly accepting answers that are easy to digest or believe. That is worse than giving up. We must learn to be critical towards the answers we receive & use logic and reason to decide whether to accept these answers or keep searching. We ask questions to know the truth. The truth may be bizarre, ugly or even shocking. But it doesn’t change because of our reaction towards it.
As we go on learning about so many things, our questions have become a lot more complex. Their answers can no longer be stated effortlessly in a few lines. But that is not a reason for us to give up. The more the effort needed to find the answer, the more it pleases us.