Do I have the privilege of asking questions?

I have been quite vocal in almost all of my articles that asking questions is a sign of expanding knowledge. You ask, get answers, build logic and grow your intellect. But is it really that simple? Can this process also be misinterpreted? Turns out, even this simple process of questioning comes with its own set of privileges. Before putting out a question, it is important to ask ourselves – Do I have the privilege of asking questions about this subject?

This is something one never really ponders about in everyday life. But it is important to know the level on which you are with respect to knowledge. This thought came to my mind a few days back as I saw so many people turn to spirituality and religion to revisit their roots and improve knowledge on their origin. This is a very happy news to me, but with increasing awareness, comes more responsibility. To explain my point, I put forward my example. Among other things, I have been interested in Astronomy since childhood and have made genuinely advanced efforts to improve my knowledge. At this stage of my life, I am aware of the field in general, able to participate in discussions within this field, and able to make informed comments. But that doesn’t give me the freedom to question something about, say, processes of star formation which may be beyond my present understanding.

This logic is applicable to everyone. In fact, the issue that I have raised in a previous article of mine here, also comes under this logic. I had addressed the issue of everything Indian being termed strange in order to sound cool. I encourage you to check out the article if you haven’t already. It is imperative to understand that wearing the veil of modernity does not give us a free pass on insolent interrogation. This came to my mind while I was looking at a video where the commentary on occultism ended in the speaker saying “How is that even possible for logic!” Needless to say, your logic is never the absolute logic. It is equivalent to Aristotle saying Einstein’s concept of Relativity is a hoax. It isn’t, but it requires a certain intellectual capability to process that information.

There are billions and billions of prominent subjects in this world that you can learn about. Then there are even more that are interdisciplinary, subsidiaries, types and so on relating to the world, the outer space, your inside space etc. In short, there is no shortage of learning in the world we are living in. This gives us the opportunity to follow any field we wish to learn about during our lifetime. But it is not that simple. Learning requires dedication, hard work and most importantly, the intellectual capability to understand that subject. Coupled with that are the real world problems of economic, social and environmental factors to be considered. The cumulative result of all these decisions is your decision to study a subject, which may or may not be the career choice you make, but you like it nonetheless. But that does not give you the privilege of questioning everything in that subject. In order to understand your privileges, you need to start with the awareness that you will always be a novice to knowledge, and you can never be bigger than knowledge. The only thing you can be bigger than is your past self, which is the only absolute acknowledgement you would ever require to understand in order to start gaining unbiased knowledge. Point to ponder?

Be detoxified! Be satisfied! Be mystified! Be Priyafied!