Here is a remarkable story of how a brilliant young boy had to drop everything he knew in order to realize the ultimate truth.
Sadhguru: In the yogic tradition, there is a wonderful story about a boy named Shwetaketu. “Shwetaketu” literally means “white comet.” He was born into a family of Brahmins. Today it has been reduced to a caste, but fundamentally, a Brahmin means, “one who is in touch with the ultimate.” Being a Brahmin by birth does not mean anything. If you are a Brahmin out of your awareness, that is everything. So, when this boy reached 12 years of age, he was sent to study with a certain master for 12 years.
Shwetaketu was a brilliant boy and grasped everything well. The Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Brahma Sutras contain everything that can be said about a human being and the beyond; that is why they are so dangerous. After twelve years of study, the master said to him, “There is nothing more to learn for you. You have learned everything there is to learn. I think it is better you go home.” The boy went back home. His father looked at him and said, “You have come back as an ignorant fool.” The boy replied that he had learned all the Vedas and the Upanishads and could even recite them backwards.
The father said, “You know everything that can be learned, but you have not learned anything about that which learns. The very way you walk, I can see that now you know too much, but you do not know that which knows, so you are very ignorant. We are true Brahmins; we are not just Brahmins by birth. If you want to be here, you must know the knower, not that which can be known. Go back to your master.” The boy had been out to study for 12 years, and now that he came home after graduation, he would have expected them to set up a party for him, but his father just turned him out of the house.
The boy went back to the master and said, “My father says I am ignorant. I know all the Vedas and the Upanishads. I have learned everything that you taught me sincerely, but my father says I am ignorant. He says I must know the knower.” So the master said, “Oh, you want to know the knower? That is good. These 12 years, you were only interested in that which can be known, so I taught you everything that can be known in the world. You learned all that, so I sent you back. Now you are saying that you want to know the knower. Let me see.” There were 400 cattle. The master said, “Take this herd and go into the forest. Just be with them. When they become 1000, you come back.” Shwetaketu could not believe it. He had gone through the full scale of education, and now he was told to become a cowherd.
So, Shwetaketu went to the forest. Initially, there was turmoil and struggle in him. He thought, “Everyone rejected me, and my master gave me this punishment,” and so many other things. For a few weeks and months, his mind ran. But to keep the mind running continuously, you need input. There was no input in the forest, so he slowly forgot about what happened in the ashram and at home. All this knowledge is powerful only if there is someone to listen to you; someone to show it off to. The cows will not listen. Gradually, their chomping sank into him, and his 12 years of scriptural learning fell apart.
Over time, he became like the cows. He ate when he was hungry; otherwise, he just sat there. They say the shape of his eyes changed to that of a cow. He became so much like a cow. But he truly existed. He was no more a slave of his mind. When he sat, he sat absolutely. When he was with a cow, he was a cow. When he touched a tree, he was a tree. When he sat on the earth, he became the earth. Because there was no input to the mind, he became an absolute presence. He forgot the language. He forgot the numbers. He was simply there.
One day, the cows came to him and told him that there were 1000 of them, and that they wanted to go back to the master. So he went back to the ashram with them. The ashram had grown, and the number of disciples had multiplied. Shwetaketu just stood there with the cows. Full of excitement, the other disciples came and counted the cows. Then they told the master, “There are 1000 cows.” The master said, “No, there are 1001,” because Svetaketu had completely lost his personality. He had become an absolute presence.
Do not make everything into an input and keep gathering. Human beings have been gathering since ancient times. Initially, we just gathered food. Then, little by little, things like stones and furs. Now our ability to gather has become enormous. Soon, we may even start to gather things from other planets. No matter how much you gather, you will not know the ultimate. Only when you drop the gathering and are here without anything, will it happen. Being here without anything does not mean getting rid of something. It is just that if you keep aside all the impressions you have gathered in the form of knowledge and everything else, then you will see the basis of knowing becomes present in an absolute and unbounded way.
