ईशा वास्यमिदं सर्वं – All This is Pervaded by the Divine Consciousness (Isha Upanishad)

The most common translation of the Sanskrit word विद्या (Vidya) is knowledge. To explore a deeper meaning, let us look at a couple of verses from the Mundaka Upanishad:

कस्मिन् नु भगवो विज्ञाते सर्वमिदं विज्ञातं भवतीति
What Is That, Knowing Which, Everything Becomes Known?

तस्मै स होवाच – – द्वे विद्ये वेदितव्ये इति ह स्म यद् ब्रह्मविदो वदन्ति परा चैवापरा च
Twofold is the knowledge that must be known of which the knowers of the ultimate truth (Brahman) tell, the higher and the lower knowledge.

“These verses refer to an important distinction that has been drawn in the Indian pedagogy between two kinds of knowledge, — lower knowledge and higher knowledge, — apara and para vidya. Science, art, philosophy, ethics, psychology, the knowledge of man and his past, action itself are means by which we arrive at the knowledge of the becomings of the world, of the multiplicity and of the appearances. That knowledge is lower knowledge. But as we go deeper and deeper, a completer view and experience develop, and each of the lines of growth brings us face to face with knowledge of the ultimate Reality. That knowledge is Para vidya. We begin to grow in the sense of comprehensiveness and in the sense of universal harmony and progressive equilibrium of the manifestation of the underlying perfection. 

The more we begin to understand and experience the underlying unity, the more we perceive the key of multiplicity in unity, the more we surpass the limitations of the lower knowledge and the more we enter into the portals of the higher knowledge. The more we are occupied with multiplicity and different domains of knowledge, the more we remain entrenched in apara vidya; the more we overcome our bondage to appearances and multiplicity, the more we transcend into the knowledge of the imperishable and ineffable, the more we become liberated into the realm of para vidya. Knowledge attained by senses and even the knowledge that remains confined to intellectual processes, even the highest stores of information keep us confined to lower knowledge. The more we cross the borders of sense-knowledge and intellectual knowledge, the more we grow inward, the more we discover the inner self and inner unity through inner vision and inner intuitive concreteness of experiences that lead us into the secrets of higher knowledge.”
– Kireet Joshi, Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and Indian Pedagogy .

This website is being developed with the aspiration of knowing “That” through which everything becomes known and we hold space for sincere sadhakas and sadhikas aspiring for learning and growing together.