It was a gentle summer afternoon and the sky was a resplendent expanse of pure blue. As usual, Set, Arc and Os were flying low, carrying messages from their respective masters. After dutifully delivering the letters to the correct destinations, the trio came and sat on top of the tallest building in the city center. Immediately they started their regular quarrel.
Set: “You know what, I carry all the secrets of the city. And it feels great to know everything!”
Arc was not to take this silently. “You wish! I am over hundred years old and have carried more messages than both your families put together. I know everything that is happening around me. Hence, my knowledge surpasses everyone.”
Os, as always, was ambivalent. “With or without knowledge, I get my job done to the satisfaction of my master. Thus, I guess I am the wisest. You both claim to know everything. Yet, I haven’t heard you say anything about what you know. Then again, what is the point of knowing anything?”
Set laughed out loud. “That’s because you are not wise like me. To be wise is to know everything.”
Arc snapped “You cannot possibly know everything!”
Set shouted, “I know everything! Challenge me!”
Os jumped in. “Oh, I know what to ask! What do you know about… YOURSELF?” And he smiled proudly as if he asked a great question.
Set was not amused. “About me? What about me? Why should I know about myself? And what is there to know about myself? What a silly question!”
Arc was equally irritated with Os. “What is wrong with you, Os? When it is about knowledge, you ask about things all around you. Not about YOU! And what is this business about knowing oneself??”
Os was a bit apologetic. “Don’t get all furious at me, alright! I heard someone ask this question to the wise man in the street. I never understood it either. I thought you both might know, since you claim to know everything.”
Set dismissed it entirely. “Utter nonsense! I know everything that is happening around me, and that makes me the wisest!”
And the quarrel continued as always.
While the three crows continued their heated argument atop the city center, an eagle was flying high in the sky viewing the entire landscape down below. Seeing the trio’s quarrel, the eagle flew down on to the top of the tallest building in the city center.
Noticing this unexpected visitor, the three crows stopped their argument and looked at the eagle.
The eagle smiled. “Greetings friends! I happened to hear your conversation as to who is the wisest.”
“Yes, I am the wisest!” the three crows shouted together.
The Eagle: “How very wonderful! It is my good fortune to meet not one, but three wisest creatures! And if I may, how did you come to know that you are the wisest? I am very eager to learn!”
Set jumped in. “Because I carry all the secret letters… full of knowledge. And that makes me the wisest!”
Arc: “I am the oldest and the most experienced. My age and experience makes me the wisest!”
Os: “I am the smartest and the most efficient, delivering more messages every day! Doesn’t that make me the wisest?”
The eagle appeared even more fascinated. “Incredible indeed! Three wisest creatures! How intriguing. And if I may ask, what is wisdom? I can’t wait to learn!”
Set was taken aback by this unexpected question. After a moment’s pause, Set said, “Wisdom is the kind of knowledge which makes one powerful.”
Arc thought for a moment and said, “That cannot be! Swords can make one powerful. Is sword wisdom? No! According to me, wisdom is, for example, if I have a problem, I can solve it with wisdom. ”
Os said, “If I have the problem of hunger, I can solve it with food. If I am thirsty, I can solve it by drinking water. Even the smallest animals know it. So, that can’t be wisdom. Moreover, our guest asked to define what wisdom is – not give an example, that too a bad one. I feel… it is quite difficult to define wisdom.”
Set and Arc looked as if they were considering what Os just said.
The eagle looked genuinely curious. “What an interesting observation! Friends, why do you think you find it difficult to define wisdom, even when you are the wisest?”
Set was uncomfortable, and said rather doubtfully, “Perhaps there is no definition for wisdom?”
Arc said slowly, “Or, it could be that wisdom is beyond definition.”
Os was thinking aloud. “It could also be that we simply do not know what wisdom is!”
Set was almost having an epiphany. “Guys, if we cannot define wisdom, it means we do not know what wisdom is. Then how can we claim ourselves to be wise?”
While Os stared blankly with gaped beak, Arc came out of shock and angrily questioned the eagle. “How dare you come out of nowhere and question our wisdom?!! Do you know what wisdom is? Do you know everything??”
The eagle smiled gently, “Friends, I don’t know everything. But I know just one thing, and that is about myself. The only thing I know is that I know nothing.”
The crows were confused. They asked “What a strange statement! How can knowing that one knows nothing be knowledge at all? Could you please explain, friend?”
The eagle now had a serious expression. “In my humble life, I have met many who claimed to be wise and full of wisdom. Curious to learn, I had asked them questions… questions like what Justice is, Love is, Courage is, Piety is, Wisdom is, Knowledge is and so on. All they could give me was random examples or incomplete explanations. Nobody was able to give me the perfect definition of anything. And if one doesn’t know how to define a concept, how can one claim to know anything about it? I could only come to one conclusion: Nobody knows anything; and more importantly, they are completely unaware of their ignorance! They are ignorant about themselves!
But I at least know one thing – that I know nothing. My knowledge is the knowledge of my own ignorance. And this knowledge, this knowledge that I know nothing, this self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. When I become aware of myself, of the infirmity and limitation of my knowledge, I become aware of the vastness that is unknown to me. Then I begin to seek. I begin to ask questions to myself. Questions that would lead to more questions. This quest, this path of self-enquiry leads one to answers. And this is where wisdom begins – in asking questions, seeking answers, examining oneself, one’s life. After all, the unexamined life is not worth living.”
The crows, for the first time, looked each other in the eye. It was as if they heard a revelation. They were silent for a while. One phrase kept reverberating within them “self-knowledge.”
Set slowly, yet firmly said to the other two, “What were we doing all these years?”
Arc: “We were living in our ignorance, unaware of it all the while. We have been so conditioned to accept everything without questioning that we never once thought by ourselves.”
Os: “We don’t even know who we are, and yet we were obsessed with things around us. We should have been examining ourselves afresh!”
Set: “Everything about our life has been the other way round.”
Arc: “Now I feel like questioning everything. Looking at everything from a new perspective. Even our names.”
Set: “Introspection friends… introspection… that’s the key.”
The trio came closer and a certain calm spread across their faces.
The eagle looked content. “Dear friends, it is time for me to leave. I have more horizons to explore, for mine is a never ending journey of enquiry.” Saying thus, the eagle took flight.
On its way to the sky, the eagle looked back and asked, “Friends, I forgot to ask your names.”
The crows said one after the other, “SO CRA TES”
The eagle smiled wide and said out loud, “Know thyself!” And he soared high up towards the boundless sky.
Autumn happenings…
The embers which the eagle kindled within the crows set them on their own journeys of self-exploration. Realizing the limit of one’s knowledge, realizing one’s ignorance, they set out on a journey of enquiry, an enquiry to realize the universe within. Their knowledge of the self-revealed to them their incompleteness, the limitless universe of knowledge that awaits them, and also the impossibility of knowing it all. Thus is born in them a profound humility and a strong yearning to seek, to learn, to explore.
The eagle who soars high up in the sky, exploring its infinite expanse, is none other than the great Greek thinker Socrates. The wise man who never wrote a word, who claimed to know nothing, and whose only knowledge was the knowledge of the self. He urged us to look within, introspect, to know our limitations, to question ourselves, to know oneself. Where else can we begin our endless journey to seek knowledge than from within! Only with inner clarity will our search for truth, knowledge and goodness find meaning. And let the Socratic voice inspire us to know ourselves…
“I know that I know nothing.” (Socrates, 470 – 399 BC)