Acharya Prashant explains that the statement "I do not know" is often co-opted by the mind and does not represent true surrender or humility. He argues that when a person acknowledges ignorance, they usually do so with the underlying belief that they possess the method or potency to eventually acquire that knowledge, much like checking a phone to find out the time. This superficial acknowledgement of ignorance is actually a form of arrogance because it treats the unknown as a territory to be conquered through effort and hope. True spirituality, he asserts, involves the dropping of hope and effort, moving beyond the binary of knowing and not knowing into a state of silence and being awestruck. He emphasizes that the truth is not just unknown but unknowable by the mind's weak instruments. A real spiritual state is one where the mind is left wordless and dumbstruck by something far bigger than itself, losing the desire to express or communicate. Ultimately, he suggests that even claiming not to know is an attempt to bring the truth into the territory of knowledge, whereas the truth descends only when one is totally disappointed in their ability to know yet remains intensely drawn toward it.
