29 Apr 2012 - QA 1

If we are insignificant, then why are we using so much money, time, resources and energy on ourselves here at this course? Why should we become spiritual and all that if each one of us doesn’t even matter? Who are we helping by being good if they don’t matter either!
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Do you need the answer for this question? It doesn’t matter either! Why are you bothered about this question? It doesn’t matter!

Listen; there are many levels of existence, but two levels of knowledge.
One is the applied knowledge, and the other is the pure knowledge.
Pure Science and Applied Science.
Pure science is what? In this room, everything is made up of wood. The sofa is wood, the table is wood, and the door is wood. So this is all wood. Everything is atoms, to be even more precise!
What is it? Everything is atoms!
So, everything is made up of wood, or everything is atoms – This is pure science.
But you can’t use the sofa as the door or the door as the sofa, even though everything is made up of atoms. Do you understand?

See, diamond and charcoal, they are made up of the same material. It is virtually the same. But, you can’t hang charcoal on your ears, and you can’t put diamonds in the stove, correct?!
So, they are different at one level. It is like saying that ice and water is the same, it is only H2O. But you can make tea out of water. You can’t make tea out of ice. Ice has to become water, only then you can make tea out of it. Isn’t it? So that is applied knowledge.

So, in pure knowledge, it is said that you are insignificant. Why? It is because suddenly you see your life in context with the universe.
That doesn’t mean you should not eat. If you are insignificant, then why exist? Why eat? Why sleep? Why do anything? Right?! You need to do all that, and so you need to be in the course also. Got it?

Being here what happens? The mind gets energized, the body gets energized and the knowledge gets lodged in you. So many things happen.