27. Open up to Higher Knowledge🔗

Understand, life is knowledge. Expansion of knowledge is Life. Unable to expand in knowledge after a certain level is depression; it is death. When you are unable to expand further, it is depression; you are dead. There is nothing else to be done. Many times, people who are very successful in the outer world come to me and ask, 'We don't know what to do with our life Swamiji. It has become a big burden. We are just dragging our life! We neither have the courage to die, nor the energy to live; we are just dragging, dragging, dragging.' This means you have opened only one channel - perception through the senses.

Very rarely, people open the second channel. They are the people who become scientists, thinkers, artists. They open up the next level of understanding. For example, if there is a stone, and you perceive it only through the senses, you will see it as a stone, that's all. But if you can start inferring, 'If I remove this part, if I remove that part, if I remove that part, it can become a sculpture!', that is the next level of knowledge. Inference is nothing but coming to a conclusion through cognition. Great artists, great creators, great sculptors, great poets, all of them have entered the second level of knowledge.

The third level of knowledge is very rare. Only very intelligent civilizations accept, internalize and experience the third level of knowledge - the words of the awakened ones, the words of the enlightened ones. Please understand, if you accept only the first level of knowledge, pratyakṣa, whatever is perceived through the senses, only the first thirty-three years of your life will be joyful. There are many countries, many cultures, where you can spend only the first thirty-three years of your life! They are not useful, they are not worthy, for the second thirty-three years. The second thirty-three years you will be bored, depressed, empty, in that civilization, because it has nothing to offer you after that. All your life, you have to accept the lifestyle, the entertainment, which has been designed for the kids and youth - you have to go to the same theme park which has been designed for them, you have to enjoy the same music and dance and food which has been created for them.

Rarely, some countries offer opportunities for the second thirty-three years, which means, opportunities for science, opportunities for art, opportunities for creativity, opportunities for exploring the inference dimension, the anumāna dimension. They can offer life material for you, entertainment for you, till you are sixty-six, ready to retire from your profession. After that, there is nothing for you in those countries, in those cultures. That is why, all over the world, there is such a high suicide rate among the senior citizens. No media talks about it, because these people are not directly useful to society. But all over the world it is happening. The other day I read a news report which said that the Swiss government is allotting a caregiver to every senior citizen. They will take complete care of you, entertain you, so whatever you want - but please don't commit suicide, that's all they are asking!

Very rarely, very rarely, a few civilizations give you the opportunity to experience the third level of knowledge - the āgama, the words of the awakened ones, the words of the enlightened ones. Please understand, as the civilization evolves to higher and higher levels, it starts accepting and encouraging the higher kinds of knowledge. Only when it moves to the very subtle, very intelligent level, it starts accepting āgama, the words of an enlightened Master. I can say that only the civilizations which produced great people like Patanjali can offer entertainment for you till you are a hundred. When I say 'civilization', I don't just mean India. I mean Bharat. Bharat is a not a geographical location; it is a spiritual distinction. Wherever the science of Living Enlightenment is practiced, wherever the spiritual knowledge is kept alive, all those places are Bharat. Only such a civilization keeps on offering you something new for your entire life.

Living just through the perception of the senses is like running my life through one channel!