Know that you do not know

On the banks of this river many people were coming to do the rituals.  Damaru, the pandit, was having good business on that day.  He would recite something which would look like Sanskrit.  Gullible people would ask him sometimes of the explanation of what he was reciting in the ritual.

To one he would tell: ‘Your forefathers are angry with you.  They want you to repent by arranging religious discourses.’

The Sanskrit verse would remain the same but the explanations would change for different people.

To another he would tell: ‘You need to protect your future generations by giving these oblations.’

To still another: ‘Hell is closer than heaven for you.  Do such and such things to open the doors of heaven.’

An observer was hearing all these.  After one of the customer of Damaru went, he caught hold of him: ‘You are cheating everyone.  You should be punished. You try to show as if you are all-knower but you know nothing.’

Damaru was cool.  He smiled and explained: ‘It is not that I do not know anything.  I know that I do not know.  That much knowing is sufficient with these people who believe that I know something!’

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