49 On the possession of knowledge
Beloved Shya,
Love.
If you seek to find experiences, with no particular end in mind; if you
seek "to know" thanks to a natural insatiable curiosity, and
you accept that this curiosity IS insatiable, it is ok!
On the other hand, if you wish to possess knowledge, the way someone
else might possess a million dollars, or someone else might possess a
gun, then you have become materialist.
The possession of knowledge is what a lot of people come to seek, rather
than knowledge itself, for its own sake. They seek this to get some kind
of answer, thinking it will bring them happiness, and so they fail to
allow themselves to be happy already, in the mere looking.
They seek to possess knowledge to feel valid, to feel useful, to feel powerful, to feel superior, to show others, to use it against others, so others will respect them, so others will obey them, so others will love them.
This sort of knowledge is useless. It is like buying a car, and then bringing all your friends around to see it parked, and then making it into a shrine, and never turning it on and driving.
So no, possessing knowledge will not make you happy.
However, the experience of different things, especially of learning new
things, without possessiveness, without materialism, can make you happy.
And you should let yourself be overjoyed with that happiness.
Love
Swami
