Acharya Prashant addresses the difference between knowing and accumulating knowledge by explaining that a thing is known at two levels. The first level is knowing the thing at the level of the fact, which involves a factual appreciation of it, such as how a gadget works, how it was manufactured, where its raw materials came from, and its cost. While it's not very important to know it fully, one must have a certain level of factual appreciation for anything that is important to one's worldly and material life. The second, more important level is to know the thing at the level of its impact. This means understanding what that thing means to you, why you have it, why you are thinking about it, and what it has done to your mind. One must ask if it has brought peace and clarity or if it has become a burden on the mind. This is what is meant by not accumulating but knowing. Accumulation invariably means having a thing without knowing it, especially without knowing its purpose for you. To accumulate is to have something without knowing why you have it, like using a fridge as a shelf or a canvas. When you know a thing well at both the factual and impact levels, then having that thing is no longer a problem or an accumulation, but a healthy relationship. When one knows something but still slips, it means that in the moment of slipping, one does not know anything. Knowledge is not something that can be accumulated and kept in a corner; it must be lived in. In the moment of slipping, other things have become more important, capturing your attention and corrupting your memory. Therefore, it is not enough to have positive knowledge; one must also have a negative determination—the determination to negate and keep away the things that are not helpful. If a teacher gives you a bowl of nutritious and delicious food (knowledge), your responsibility is to keep the flies (distractions, allurements) away. If you have the bowl plus the flies, the knowledge is of no use. When you are with people, they can become more important than the knowledge. Truth cannot be secondary to anything else; everything must be subservient to the Truth. If you find something more important than the Truth, then the Truth will never embrace you. If your office is an impediment to your spiritual growth, you must be prepared to discard it. While one doesn't need to take extreme measures often, if a drastic choice between two mutually exclusive things is required, you must be prepared to pay the price without hesitation.