Beware of this Gutter Knowledge
Acharya Prashant: ‘Vidya’ and ‘avidya’, both are things of the skies. First of all, reclaim yourself from the ‘gutter knowledge’ that enslaves you.
‘I should be doing that, he should be doing this. This is the good life. Now is the time. You should have that. He has so much. The society means this. The country means that. The religion means this. If you do this, you are a good man. If I do this, I am a bad man.’—This is gutter knowledge.
To rise above gutter knowledge, use ‘avidya’. That's the purpose and utility of ‘avidya’. The Upanishads talk of ‘avidya’ very highly. They say that if you do not have ‘avidya’, you will fall in a very dark hole. Now you know why? Because if you do not have there, what will you have? Gutter knowledge. And you just cannot totally avoid gutter knowledge because man is born in a gutter. Being born in gutter, it is obviously likely that gutter knowledge will find its way into you. The kid, by the time she's five, already has tons of gutter knowledge. Go and talk to any five-year-old, you'll see what I’m saying. Talk to a five-year-old and be astounded by the depth of gutter knowledge she already has.
To take care of gutter knowledge, there is avidya. Avidya has two aspects. Worldly, which we can broadly call as science. It could be the material sciences or the social sciences. So, there is science and there is spirituality, right? There is science and there is spirituality. Both of these things are missing from the minds of the common man because he has gutter knowledge. This is the hallmark of gutter knowledge. It will have neither science nor spirituality. And this is the hallmark of the gutter person. His words, his convictions, his values will correspond to neither science nor spirituality. It's coming from an altogether different place, gutter. He'll talk unscientific and unspiritual stuff. Check whether his beliefs are scientific and you will find—no. Check whether his words are coming from spirituality and you will find—no. That's the gutter person. In fact, this gutter person seriously abhors, even hates real science and real spirituality. To the scientist he will say, “Oh! You are just materialist. You do not know that there are mystical energies as well.” So, he does not like the scientist. To the spiritual person, he will say, “You know, you are not quite practical. You are just taking an extreme position and you want to know everything. You talk too much from logic. You don't have belief.”
It's a strange thing. We thought science and spirituality are probably likely to quarrel with each other. No, that's not the case. You see, ‘avidya’ brackets these two together, the Rishi and the Professor. Science and spirituality, both come together under the umbrella of ‘avidya’. Science and spirituality go together. What rails against both of them is the gutter. Science and spirituality are hand in hand. The gutter is the common enemy of both because the gutter is the basement of mental existence.
This mind that understands neither the world nor itself. It doesn't understand the world, so, it hates science. It doesn't understand itself, so, it dislikes spirituality. All that it likes is vague, nebulous, empty beliefs handed over by generations of foolishness and animal-like excitement served by the media. That's what it likes, the gutter. So, now you know why ‘avidya’ is important. Now you know why you must know how things are, why science is important. Now you must know how things inwardly are, why spirituality is important. If you don't have this, then you, all that you have is the gutter and the gutter is a default.
‘Avidya’ has to be learnt. Gutter comes to you on its own.
Full article link: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles/three-levels-of-knowledge-1_3e2e7cb
