How Learning Takes Place
Swami Dayananda Saraswati
If you have to learn something, naturally you should have a mind that is capable oflearning. What is the mind that learns? Sure, you all know that if the mind is busyelsewhere it does not learn. One has to have a mind that is with the present, what isgoing on right now. Even these words that I speak now need not be heard byeveryone. I find that in the audience there will always be someone nudging anotherasking what the swami said. Well, that is because the mind was elsewhere. Our spanof attention is very short. You can be attentive for a few minutes together, then themind goes elsewhere. So one has to be alert to have the mind with what is going on.One cannot learn for want of a mind that is not alert, that is not with the present. Eventhough the mind is capable of learning, if it is engaged otherwise it cannot learn. Thereis another reason why the mind does not learn.If the language of the message, what is to be learned, is not understood, then also onecannot learn. Even if the language is understood, if one is not prepared for the type ofknowledge that is given, then also one cannot learn. The language may be understood,but the arguments and various implications may not be understood at all. Therefore,you cannot learn if the one who teaches does not have the language and the method tocommunicate. You get bored because you cannot learn. And if the teacher hassomething to convey and has the means of communication, he can reach you, but if youare not reachable because your mind is elsewhere, there cannot be any learning.Therefore, it takes two to learn.The one who teaches should know what he teaches. If he is confused and not sure,then there is nothing he can give. He will only duck under big words. He cannotconvey, being unsure of himself. Or, he may be sure, but he has no means or nomethod of communication. Or the methods are not proper. If the teacher cannot holdthe minds of the listeners in his or her hands then you cannot learn. You must beexperiencing this in school. Some teachers are capable of making you understand andothers are not. Therefore, it definitely takes two to learn. The teacher must be able tocommunicate and the student should be alert enough to receive.So you give the benefit of doubt to me, assuming that I have a message to give, andthat I am going to give it. I must have a means of communication, because I havedeclared that I am going to teach. Until I prove otherwise, you give the benefit ofdoubt to me, assuming that the swami has something to convey and is able tocommunicate. This is an assumption. Some of you might have listened to me and mayhave that kind of trust. But some of you are quite new to the swami. You don’t knowwhat to expect. Perhaps your parents have sent you here. Some of you might havecome because of their insistence, or, you insisted. For those who are new and do notknow what to expect, I say give the benefit of doubt to the swami. I have something toconvey something that will be useful in your life, something that will change your waysof thinking. If you give that benefit of doubt, then your mind will stay. If you knowthat you are going to learn something, then your mind will stay attentive during theclass. I am not going to give simple lectures. It is going to be a class each time wemeet. You know what a class is. The subject matter is there which we are going tounfold.Unfolding is different from lecturing. When I lecture, you may or may not follow me.If I am going to unfold, I make sure that you see what I see. This is called unfolding.I will tell you what unfolding is by an example. A sculptor and his friend werewalking together. On the way side there was a rock. The sculptor stopped and wasadmiring the rock, telling his friend “Look at this beautiful rock.” The friend replied,“What is there in the rock? It is like any other rock. I don’t see any beauty in it.”The sculptor asked the friend to help him take the rock to his studio where he works.Together they engaged a truck and had it delivered to the studio. The friend left. Afterthree months the friend came to visit and went into the studio. Right in front was anexquisitely sculptured statue of Krishna with a gesture of a flute in his hands. Thefriend happened to be a great devotee of Krishna and was struck by the beauty of thestatue. He went near it and was filled with admiration. The sculptor was standingbehind the door unnoticed with a small chisel and hammer. When the friend saw thesculptor he said “Did you create this idol of Krishna?” “No,” said the sculptor. “Ididn’t create Krishna, I didn’t shape Krishna, I only unfolded Krishna’. Understand thedifference? “I didn’t shape a Krishna as you would shape a form of Krishna out ofwax.” What does it mean? ‘This is the Krishna you helped me bring from thewayside.” “No,” said the friend, “We brought only a rock.” The sculptor replied, “No.I didn’t bring a rock. I brought Krishna. When I saw the rock, I didn’t see just arock, but Krishna lying there.” In the sculptor’s vision Krishna was already there. Itwas seen by the eye of a sculptor. When he brought the rock to the studio it wasKrishna that he brought and not a rock. All he did was to reveal in the rock what hesaw in his mind. He went on unfolding that Krishna by chipping off the portions ofrock that were covering Krishna to the naked eyes. He went on comparing the Krishnavisualized by his mind and the Krishna seen by the eyes. Even though Krishna is readynow, still he is not happy with the lips and nose. With the chisel he continues tounfold. He is not creating but unfolding Krishna. Chipping off the portions that hideKrishna is called unfolding.In the same way, knowledge is something that is unfolded. There is something that theteacher sees. What he has to do is make you see too. Teaching is nothing but helpingyou to see what the teacher sees. If the teacher has a vision and has something toconvey then that is unfolded. Chip by chip he removes things that cover. If there isdoubt, it is removed. If there is vagueness, it is removed. If there is erro,r it isremoved. Then what is inside is conveyed. Therefore, knowledge is always unfoldedby one person to another. In this, the sculptor and the teacher are identical. Thesculptor unfolds and the teacher also unfolds. The only difference is that the sculptor isnot in the unenviable position in which the teacher happens to be. The stone doesn’trun away when the sculptor sculpts. Even if it is shaky he can make it firm, so thatwhere the chisel is placed is where the hammering takes place; where it is placed therethe effect is seen. But here, even though the teacher sculpts, if the mind is elsewhere,then he is sculpting in space. So you have to place yourself, your mind, where it needsto be. When the teaching takes place, your mind has got to stay there. Only then canthe sculpting can take place.