Sadhguru says, “Don’t polish your ignorance. It may shine.” The title of the blog talks of the power of ignorance! Paradoxical?

There is the ignorance one is ignorant of, the ignorance spawned by the illusion of knowledge without a clue of the extent of its lack. It is a painful and fearful prospect for an intellect to stagnate in the windless waters of arrogance.  Complacence is another deadly zone that stalls navigation into the sea of knowledge and wisdom until the mind is left ajar to let in the winds of change and development.

What Sadhguru refers to is this ignorance and how we stupidly keep buffing it with self-deception.  He warns against settling for an easy brilliance, a spurious radiance.

 The second with power, is the prerequisite of a scientific mind. It is of the mind that knows it does not know; it hobnobs with doubts and uncertainties, only to move on to the firmer ground of seeking. It throws its laser beam of deep, precise and forceful questions to cut through dross and reshape its understanding of the ever changing realities of this terribly beautiful universe and life. It is a preface to progress in science, the arts, all existence. It is what physicist James Clerk Maxwell terms ‘thoroughly conscious ignorance’. It has growth-value, accelerates further inquiries into the incomprehensibility of what is.

Misgivings and diffidence are hiccups in the process of creativity and learning. They prod us to extend the white flag of peace to our ambiguity; reassure that our insecurities are common property and not unique to us and confront the paralytic fear of failure. The power of such ignorance is that it inclines the mind towards continuous inquiry, towards a sustained course of mental expansion. The mind gallops towards endless questions...“Is this all there is to life?”... “Why does this happen?”... “What makes the universe tick?”... “Why am I here?”... “How much do I really know and understand?”... It is experiencing the mysterious and striving to demystify it. Such is the force of this ‘conscious ignorance’ that it makes us think and ponder; trains us to be acutely and totally attentive to the perils of information overload lest we fool ourselves into accepting that as our goal. 

 Most of us amble through life in a haze, sadly uninformed that we create our reality and happiness. Such life-denying unawareness severely impacts its quality. As years go by and we realise that we may not have many more left in our account, often our ignorance of the true values of life hits us hard. I will conclude this with a timeless, enlightening poem that makes us introspect.  .  

My Soul Has a Hat  by  Mario de Andrade

 I counted my years and realized that I have less time to live by, than I have lived so far. I feel like a child who won a pack of candies: at first he ate them with pleasure but when he realized that there was little left, he began to taste them intensely.

I have no time for endless meetings where the statutes, rules, procedures and internal regulations are discussed, knowing that nothing will be done.

I no longer have the patience to stand absurd people who, despite their chronological age, have not grown up. My time is too short: I want the essence; my spirit is in a hurry. I do not have much candy in the package anymore.

I want to live next to humans, very realistic people who know how to laugh at their mistakes and who are not inflated by their own triumphs and who take responsibility for their actions. In this way, human dignity is defended and we live in truth and honesty. It is the essentials that make life useful.

I want to surround myself with people who know how to touch the hearts of those whom hard strokes of life have learned to grow with sweet touches of the soul.

Yes, I'm in a hurry. I'm in a hurry to live with the intensity that only maturity can give. I do not intend to waste any of the remaining desserts. I am sure they will be exquisite, much more than those eaten so far.

My goal is to reach the end satisfied and at peace with my loved ones and my conscience. We have two lives and the second begins when you realize you only have one.