Conversations between Manvi and her thAthA are many times unplanned. They just happen. But does anything happen suddenly? We think it is sudden but whatever happens was perhaps meant to happen – just like the conversation between MAnvi and her thAthA; they were (in Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati’s oft said words) – “in the right place at the right time”.

MAnvi: thAthA, some sayings that one hears, linger for a long time. It may not be a deliberate choice to let it linger, but it just pops during the course of the day. One such saying in the recent times was –

If you think you have it, you don’t.. If you don’t think you have it, you may..*

thAthA: That’s a powerful saying, MAnvi. So much meaning in it!!

MAnvi: Absolutely thAthA. Couldn’t but look at this saying in two parts. First part – If you think you have it, you don’t.. What you think you have, could be – knowledge, power, strength, limitation, success, failure etc., and the last two (success and failure) are words that I struggle to understand.

MAnvi’s thAthA smiled at what she said. He knew that according to her, these two words aren’t understood by people using them. For her, success and failure are words that are used subjectively, relatively and contextually; and what is success for one, is failure for another. He knew that engaging in a discussion with her on the topic of success and failure, would make her talk passionately and emotionally and forget the discussion they were having :-). Moving on, he asked her,

thAthA: Explain what you have understood, MAnvi.

MAnvi (tongue-in-cheek, said): thAthA, I would like to discuss from the perspective of knowledge. The same perspective could be applied to power, strength, limitation, success, failure etc. When I give examples to explain my understanding, the you in the examples is not you thAthA. It is just a pronoun that applies to anybody who is hearing it, including me 🙂

thAthA (with a twinkle in his eyes): and me included 🙂

MAnvi: On a serious note thAthA, iIf you think you have knowledge, complacency may set in and that closes any learning that may be out there to grasp. At a sub-conscious level, all senses are blocked to knowledge that may come in any form or thru’ any person.

Firstly, your mind may not receptive to feedback (which is knowledge) that may come from others. Feedback is therefore is not absorbed and no informed decision is taken on the validity of the feedback. On the other hand, you maybe receptive to feedback that comes from people you value as valuable. If those giving valuable feedback that is of value to you, is few and far between, you may not get adequate and relevant feedback. Also, the few and far between people you value as valuable, may not give you the feedback that matters to your learning and growth.

If you think you have ‘all’ knowledge that is there about a subject, what is ‘all’? What you have is ‘what you see’ of it, and ‘what you see’ maybe just a fraction of the ‘all’. As it is said – Your knowledge is only upto the next question that you cannot answer.

thAthA (after keeping silence for a few seconds): MAnvi, if each of know a fraction of the ‘all’, do all of our knowledge put together, make a whole?

MAnvi (taken aback at her thAthA’s deep thinking): I am not sure, thAthA. If there is much that we all put together know, there is much that we don’t know also. What we know, is what is available now to us as knowledge. There is a lot unknown too, isn’t it? The proverb in Tamil is so apt here – What we know is the size of a fistful of sand and what we don’t is the size of the world. Well, if you think you have it (knowledge), you don’t.

MAnvi and her thAthA were lost in their own thoughts, with neither of them showing an inclination or readiness to discuss the second part. MAnvi looked at her thAthA, shook her head ever so softly and left the room. MAnvi’s thAthA knew that both of them needed the space to introspect before they met again, the next day or later..

*Courtesy – A saying shared in the Ninjitsu class.