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THE WAY OF LIFE
Maharajashri: In that case, be polite and plain in the presence of the enlightened men who possess an excellent intelligence. Politeness makes your intelligence grow and flourish. Endeavour to attain true knowledge, in accordance with the instructions of the enlightened people. You must bear in mind, the point that you must listen to scriptural discourses. You must always desire to hear discourses. If you have that desire, the enlightened people will give you knowledge and enlighten you. But you must keep listening to scriptural discourses with politeness and plainness of heart. Whatever you hear you must hear with perfect concentration. If you listen to discourses with concentration you will remember something of it. If you cannot remember what is said in the discourses, you must write down and make notes of what you hear. If you keep reading those notes every day, you will easily remember them. These four are the basic qualities of intelligence.
1. Shushrusha (the desire to hear)
2. Shravan (hearing)
3. Grahan (comprehension)
4. Dharana (retention or conceptualization)
Dharana means remembering.
You have to endeavour hard to remember what you have heard. If you do not make that endeavour, as you keep getting new knowledge, you go on forgetting what you have heard already and even the new knowledge is forgotten in course of time. Remember whatever you learn; do not forget it.
It is said in the Dharmashastras, that the Jnanavarankarma binds the man who forgets his knowledge on account of infatuation or indolence. If people do not endeavour to acquire knowledge though they possess the power to acquire knowledge, they too will be bound by the Jnanavarankarma.
From the Audience: Then how many karmas do we gather? We do not know this.
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