Physically, Man was the easiest prey in the jungle. Man, of all the life forms, however, had the most developed brains. Man survived and preyed to become THE MOST FEROCIOUS HUNTER. With his multitudinous inabilities, man turned the tide up with just one ability – The tact to learn and use the acquired knowledge to prosper. Thus, Knowledge is what man uses as the panacea(cure) for all ills.
Knowledge is also what, ironically, makes man realize his ignorance. And in this ignorance lies the undying desire to fill the wells of ignorance with heaps of knowledge and wisdom. The deeper the well of ignorance goes, the larger is the amount of knowledge that can be stored and processed to later materialize as wisdom. Thus Men, today, seek a gradual end to their ignorance by realizing their ‘ignorance’. Those who are ignorant of their ignorance. Those who boast of their incorrigibility and those, who with intransigence fail to remould, end up being too rigid. They fall prey to THE MOST FEROCIOUS HUNTER.
Time
With time, a sense dawned and percolated deep. The knowledgeable are superior. Naturally, Inequality and Injustice dawned too. Simultaneously. Destitution and Opulence, Slavery and Pomp started to coexist. Spatially and Temporally.
Knowledge, now, was the privilege of ‘the few’, for others were too busy making ends meet. Knowledge fell prey to THE MOST FEROCIOUS HUNTER. Scarcity. As a result, few men have knowledge of significance. All others are mere cogs. If the ‘few’ brandish this Knowledge as intransigent. What happens? Yes, they fall prey to THE MOST FEROCIOUS HUNTER. Ignorance.
Now, no one has any Knowledge, no one any wisdom. No one can claim ignorance, as everyone is ignorant. Either we start learning to acquire knowledge afresh, or We cease to exist. We die. We fall prey to THE MOST FEROCIOUS HUNTER. Knowledge. And remember, we are dying. The last I checked.
(The author is B.Tech pass out of NIT Srinagar and presently business consultant, with Frost and Sullivan, Malaysia. He is also currently mentoring students at Knowledge Farm CG initiative)
