Namaste,

ISKCON guru Jagat Sakshi Das posts useful videos in Youtube (in Tamil and Malayalam languages) from time to time, if you are a follower of ISKCON and know any of these languages, you should not miss his videos!

A recent excerpt from one of his talks -

"There is a difference between knowing something from reading alone, whereas knowing something from perceiving and experiencing it. The second bestows real knowledge.

Once a pandit saw a farmer having let lose his bullock on his farmland, relaxing and resting by a side.

Wondering, the pandit questioned the farmer, "Why are you relaxing this way? Aren't you supposed to walk along with your bullock?".

The farmer replied, "I have strung a bell to my bullock's neck to indicate when he is walking. If he stops, the bell will stop ringing. That way, I know he is effectively ploughing my land".

The pandit said, "But what if the bullock stays put in one place and just simply nods his head? That way, the land won't be ploughed but you will think the bullock had been walking?".

The farmer laughed and said, "No, that will never happen, because the bullock is not a pandit to think or act that way, he is simply a bullock".

This is how, superficial knowledge of something from reading alone versus experiencing a thing by oneself, differ.

Our ancestors have written our vedic scriptures such that, by reading it alone one does not get any knowledge, but by means of true bakthi or gnana, one realizes certain truths at the bottom of his heart."