*Chapter 3 - Bubbles On The Water*
*Day 23*
Have you ever observed a curious child around six months old? A baby examines its hands and fingers with amazement as if though it were seeing something amazing.
The baby is just looking at its hand. The moment you attain knowledge without wonder attached to it, that knowledge is worthless. You can even treat such knowledge as ignorance.
Only knowledge that creates wonder in you is real knowledge. What we consider as knowledge actually destroys our ability to be amazed.
What is left in life when there is no wonder or amazement? Life becomes dull. Wonder is a quality of life, and through wonder we can attain union and yoga.
Wonder is the basis for yoga. Anything you see around you is amazing. When a child sees a leaf it asks, "Why it is green?"
No sooner than you reply, he asks, "Why is the sky blue?", "Why does an elephant have a trunk?" or "Why does a horse not have a trunk?"
They may also ask why clouds move in the sky and where they go. Often even parents do not have answers to their questions.
Children ask questions and then fall silent. They wonder where they will go if they reach the stars. They think that their father has been there and can tell them about it or that their uncle or brother may know and tell them about it.
A child does not know that his
elders also do not know and gets silenced by vague answers or a scolding. Children always wonder.
Since birth, it is our nature. It is a sign of life. That is why wonder leads into yoga. It is a part of union. Similarly, a genuine scientist who has a scientific attitude will never think that he has learnt everything.
There is so much to learn, and real knowledge ignites the curiosity to know even more after having learnt something. However, people who have only partial knowledge gossip and provoke controversy.
These people raise all kinds of difficulties and cause trouble. The problems and misfortune that happen in the world are caused by such people.
The people who do not know anything as well as the well-read, knowledgeable people are not responsible for calamities in the world.
It is the group of people in-between who cause trouble. They are neither here nor there and pretend to know everything.
There never wonder about anything. That is why there is no foundation in them for yoga to happen. When you have no sense of wonder and see a leaf, you say, "This is just a leaf. What is there in it to appreciate?"
Likewise, you feel why would anyone look at a flower? You will start to wonder only when you see things with a fresh vision.
With wonder, yoga begins. Yoga does not mean sitting in a closed room doing pranayama or sit-ups till you are gasping for breath.
We have misunderstood yoga, taking it to mean only certain asanas - lifting the legs, lowering the hands, etc. What is meant by yoga classes?
Is asana practice meant only to purify and strengthen the body and eliminate disease? There is no doubt that these benefits do happen, but yoga is not just this.
A consciousness in wonder is the foundation for yoga. Out of this consciousness, innocence is born. Look at the sun at sunset.
The sun sets and the moon rises. Look at the sky and sun, nature is filled with wonder. Even the body is such a wonder.
Look at the body. How is it created? What are the various types of veins inside? This is really amazing. There are many types of insects in the world.
A child will catch hold of an insect, put it in a matchbox and watch it with wonder and delight. This is meditation. This is surrender.
We should look at the variety in the world, the many different object, animals, people, insects, with a sense of wonder rather than with a feeling of "I know it all."
