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CIRCUMSTANCES AND CHANGE OF HEART
89
Two kinds of consciousness operate in our life: (1) consciousness of sensation, and (2) consciousness of knowledge that is the consciousness of learning, of memory, of imagination, of receiving something from another. The two are quite distinct. Circumstances affect learning. All that pertains to knowledge is influenced by circumstances. But the field of sensation lies beyond circumstances and is not therefore influenced by these. A man learns a language, learns how to think. The technique os right thinking can be taught. Training is given in these matters. One learns the principles of administration--how to administer, how to manage things. How to teach. How to think. All this development is mainly based upon circumstances. One's conditioning determines what kind of knowledge one acquires. In the present-day world, a number of disciplines exist. Man today learns an infinite number of things. In the Middle Ages, there were not known so many branches of lcarning. A man soon mastered all that was to be learnt and was recognized as a scholar. One learnt how to speak Sanskrit and was recognised as a Sanskrit scholar. He might not even know how to write, might be utterly deficient in structure, not having learnt the technique of creative literature, but the mere capacity to speak entitled hirn to be called a scholar. In the olden days even a moderately educated man commanded great prestige.
One man in an illiterate village had a smattering ofthe alphabet and on that score earned quite a reputation for himself as the only man in the locality who could read. Whocver in the village received a letter or telegram came to him to seek his assistance. All this attention went to his head.
One day a villager approached him with a letter and asked him to read it for him. The letter-reader was in a fix. After all his knowledge of words was very superficial and hc barely managed to carry on the task of interpreting the simplest possible letters for the villagers. The letter presented to him by his latest visitor was somewhat difficult, written in a literary fashion far beyond his comprehension. He could clcarly make no head or tail of the letter. So he resorted to guess work and told his visitor all kinds of tales. The visitor was a poor, illiterate villager, who had no option but accept what the letter-reader told him.
Five days later, his brother arrived. The brother was very much irritated at finding no one come to receive him. He said to himself, "I sent a letter, specially requesting conveyance since the railway station is situated at a distance of 15 miles from the village. But my brother has paid no heed. He has not cared to send the bullock-cart. Is it a brotherly act? Well, I'm going to have nothing to do with him any more. I'll ask for a separation. We cannot live together. He has not shown me even this much courtesy." And while trudging his way
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