Real knowledge lies within

Swami Vishwananda once told us: Once a very learned Pandit, a priest, went to a King and said to the King, “King, I will teach you the Bhagavatam.” The King, who knew about the Bagavatam looked at the priest and said “No, I don’t want you to teach me the Bhagavatam, because you yourself did not understand the Bhagavatam. So why would you teach it to me? Go back, understand it and come back to me.”

So he left very angrily. His pride and his ego had been hurt. He went very proudly, locked himself in his room. He took all the books and started to read again the Bhagavatam. Again he went to the King and said, “King, I read everything. Again, I come to you. I will teach you the Bhagavatam." The King said, “No, no, no, go back.”

Also the second time, he was again sent back. This time he said, “For sure there is a meaning, that the King is sending me away all the time. Let me study really carefully what I am reading." Again he locked himself in his room and this time he really surrendered. Out of love he opened his heart and read the Bhagavatam. As he was reading the Bhagavatam, new knowledge arose in his mind. New wisdom was there. Things that he didn’t knew before, arose in him. Then he realised that he was going to the King for the wrong reason. He was going to the King for fame and wealth. That’s why the King sent him back.

Then, when he realised that, he didn’t go anymore to the King. After a few months, the King remembered him, and went to him. He said, “Priest, I have come to you, I didn’t see you coming back, so I was wondering...?” And when the King reached there, he saw that he was radiating so much light. Without asking him anything, the King fell at his feet, and said, “Now you can teach me. I surrender to you, I take you as my Guru. Now I see that you understood the Srimad Bhagavatam”.

Human do always this mistake of wanting things for the wrong reason. They go to God, they pray. But they ask for realisation out of selfishness. Out of selfishness they ask, “God grant me this, grant me that, give me this.” They don’t really trust, they just ask. Out of pride, out of ego one asks always to gain things that will make one happy only for a certain time. And then when you have enjoyed these little things, the happiness is gone and then you are back again in the same misery. Then you’re back again, troubling yourself.

Permanent happiness is only there, when you surrender completely to God. When your mind and soul, become one, and are offered on the altar of the Lord, He will happily give everything to you. He will give Himself, the same way the King surrendered to the priest, who understood that real teaching is within oneself and not in books.