I wonder why there was no fruit of wisdom in the Garden of Eden. Was the fruit of knowledge expected to ripen into wisdom after sometime?
Dr. Jernail S. Anand
Wisdom comes to man too late in life. Grey is symbolic of wisdom. When man has made so many mistakes in his life, only then, he becomes wise. And at this stage, this wisdom is of no use to him. Yes, it can be useful for others, but here too I have grave doubts because man does not believe in borrowed wisdom. Our scriptures, Upanishads, Vedas – are all full of wisdom. How many people have hired wisdom from these books? Bhagavad Gita is India’s pride. People have learnt about it from the great serial Mahabharata. And they talk about it almost incessantly. But, is there one who is living this wisdom in his life? The sages and saints of modern times, who are indulging in politics, form the greatest waste houses of modern times, which have spread their foul smell in the society on a large scale.
The Fruit of Wisdom
I wonder why there was no fruit of wisdom in the Garden of Eden. Was the fruit of knowledge expected to ripen into wisdom after sometime? I have already discussed that even after eating the fruit, Adam and Eve got ‘a little knowledge’ which our history and myth says, ‘is a dangerous thing’. They were denied complete knowledge. The knowledge they were kept away from was: the knowledge of their previous ‘Karma’ and ‘Janma’ and what will happen to them after death. This existential knowledge denied, they were left with ‘a little knowledge’ which has proved injurious to man. In fact, he is left to see the fruit ripen to maturity, and reap wisdom, only after man has stumbled from blunder to blunder. So that, when he gets it, it is of no use to him. He is left only to preach it, that too to ears which do not listen, because they are filled with their own existential music.
One important point that we have missed all along is: Knowledge was Satan’s choice. Satan wanted Adam and Eve to taste the forbidden fruit, because in this way, he could corrupt the father of mankind. Thus, it becomes clear that Knowledge was a part of Satan’s scheme to derail man from his divinity. It is also intriguing to think that there was a tree of knowledge, from which gods wanted men to keep away. But there was no tree of wisdom as such. What could be the reason? I think wisdom was something no one was eater to opt for. On the other hand, knowledge had its thrills which tempted Adam’s offspring.
Youth Men and the Idea of Wisdom
As the things have grown, it is not possible to convince young men to ‘think before you speak, and look before you leap’. These are wisdom quotes, anathema to young blood, which believes in action. Reflection is a slowdown process and if they indulge in it, they lose the impulse to act. And it is true also, if they start weighing their actions beforehand, they won’t do thousands of things. Moreover, when we say: ‘think before you speak’, for this we need a trained mind to think dispassionately what will happen if you speak a particular word. Every young man cannot be expected to be so cautious, because, the youth is rash and known to throw caution to winds, and just see, how they try to ride a train when it has started, and then, how much time they keep hanging on the gate of the compartment, enjoying the outside. It is not wisdom, it is youth. It is energy. It is the live current of live, and definitely it borders on madness.
Who takes borrowed wisdom?
That is why I have said, wisdom can be neither borrowed, nor anyone likes to hire it. Because, it is always a hard earned entity, for which, men have to grey their hair, and suffer after they have made mistakes. Wisdom is an antidote to romance. Young men look at things with half of their minds lost in imagination. The decisions are quick jerk, and they simply do not bother about the consequences. If young men really bothered about wisdom, or the consequences of their actions, there wouldn’t be rapes and murders.
When we try to make a small child wise, and if he starts acting like his grandfather, we have robbed him of the joys of his childhood. And in youth too, too much contemplation, and thought can damage the joy of being alive. Love and wisdom do not go together. Love for the wise, is a romantic extravaganza, which soon spends itself, no doubt, leaving behind a lot of wisdom. When dreams crash, and when romantic structures come tumbling down, when rash actions meet their logical conclusion, – you will find the ashes of wisdom left behind. This is how our rashness is an invitation to wisdom. A man who has married according to the will of his parents, will have a different type of wisdom than the person who has married a woman for love. Both will learn something from this experience, and this learning is the gist of wisdom.
The Irony
But, the sad and ironic part of wisdom is: what use it is, if it is to come only after we have gone on a losing spree? I sometimes wonder, why not ask gods to let men begin their life’s journey with the wisdom they had gathered in their previous ‘janma’ [incarnation]. At least, they can avoid making those mistakes again, and build up further on their past mistakes and have a life full of wisdom.
If it so happens, you will see the entire absence from the scene, of love, marriage, kids, and a hundred other things that dot life making it worth living. Wisdom looks with a twisted eye on everything that youth has to do. And if men turn wise and don’t do things which bring them to loss, it will be a grey world of wisdom, where the peace of ruins will reign.
Gods knew it well. So they kept wisdom at bay. Wisdom comes to man when it is of no use. During his life time, he has to live with his follies, and go on making mistakes. All the successes that he gets in life are the result of his good intentions, and genuine work. For this he needs intelligence and a clear head, in other words, wisdom, which was not available in the Garden of Eden.
Read – INADEQUATE: TOO MUCH FOR GODS AND TOO LITTLE FOR MANKIND
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Dr. Jernail Singh Anand, President of the International Academy of Ethics, is author of 167 books in English poetry, fiction, non-fiction, philosophy and spirituality. He was awarded Charter of Morava, the great Award by Serbian Writers Association, Belgrade and his name was engraved on the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. The Academy of Arts and philosophical Sciences of Bari [Italy] honored him with the award of an Honorable Academic. Recently, he was awarded Doctor of Philosophy [Honoris Causa] by the University of Engineering and Management, Jaipur. Recently, he organized an International Conference on Contemporary Ethics at Chandigarh. His most phenomenal book is Lustus: The Prince of Darkness [first epic of the Mahkaal Trilogy]. Email: anandjs55@yahoo.com
Link Bibliography:
https://sites.google.com/view/bibliography-dr-jernal-singh/home
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