A story for every knowledge worker
Bharadwaja, a great sage and Raibhya, a great scholar are great friends. Each excelled in their own fields in their own ways.
Yavakrit, son of Bhardwaj grew up seeing that many reach out to Raibjhya for seeking knowledge and not his father Bharadwaja. It not only bothered him but also kindled jealously.
In order to become popular and to gain more attention from the scholastic community, Yavakrit, took a shortcut (penance) to gain the knowledge rather than training under a guru and seeking knowledge (a long, rigorous and right path).
The lord was pleased by Yavakrit's penance. He appeared in front of him and even advised him to take the right path of knowledge gathering and let go of shortcuts. Our friend, Yavakrit doesn't want to listen to nuggets of wisdom. He is adamant that his boon is granted by the lord. Without much option, the lord grants the boon.
Once he got all the information transferred to him, Yavakrit got arrogant and started insulting other scholars by challenging them. One day in his blinded pursuit of popularity Yavakrit insults Raibhya's family. On this incident Raibhya curses Yavakrit to perish. Upon knowing this Bharadwaj curses Raibhya that his own son will kill him one day.
Days passed. On one cold night Raibhya was wearing a tiger skin to protect himself from cold while he lived in the forest. His younger son, Paravasu, thought it was tiger and he shot his father dead. Upon realising the mistake, Paravasu goes through intense Sadhna and the lord appears again. Lord forgives the mistake and brings back everyone to life including Yavakrit.
Yavakrit is puzzled and questions the lord, "how come I am killed so easily by Raibhya while I got all the knowledge from you my lord ?"
The lord smiles and says, ‘You have gained all the knowledge through penance where as Raibhya underwent all the rigor of seeking and earned the quintessence of Vedic knowledge. That made all the difference’.
A friend shared this story with me as a part of a atomic writing in the Guild. From that day I remind myself of this story everyday.
The Yavakrit in each one of us wants to take a short cut and gain all information in one shot without going through the needed rigour. We get this from social media, Google, Medium, YouTube and more and think we have all the knowledge. May be information is available but the transformation inside has not happened yet.
The rigour of seeking and soaking the knowlege is the only way to transform one self. Gaining information is not the same as seeking knowledge. Knowing the difference makes all the difference.
Story Credit: Anu
🥂 to rigour!