" Sri Yukteswar's tone was inquiring, as
though utter silence had reigned. The pundit was puzzled.
"Quotations there have been, in superabundance." Master's words
convulsed me with mirth, as I squatted in my corner, at a respectful
distance from the visitor. "But what original commentary can you
supply, from the uniqueness of your particular life? What holy
text have you absorbed and made your own? In what ways have these
timeless truths renovated your nature? Are you content to be a
hollow victrola, mechanically repeating the words of other men?"
"I give up!" The scholar's chagrin was comical. "I have no inner
realization."
For the first time, perhaps, he understood that discerning placement
of the comma does not atone for a spiritual coma.
"These bloodless pedants smell unduly of the lamp," my guru remarked
after the departure of the chastened one. "They prefer philosophy
to be a gentle intellectual setting-up exercise. Their elevated
thoughts are carefully unrelated either to the crudity of outward
action or to any scourging inner discipline!"
Master stressed on other occasions the futility of mere book
learning.
"Do not confuse understanding with a larger vocabulary," he remarked.
"Sacred writings are beneficial in stimulating desire for inward
realization, if one stanza at a time is slowly assimilated. Continual
intellectual study results in vanity and the false satisfaction of
an undigested knowledge.
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