To understand something is to forget it || On Vivekachudamani (2018)
Questioner: When I read and understand any verse from the Upanishads, is that understanding emerging from a personal comprehension or is it universal? Is understanding personal or universal? Is there a way to touch upon real understanding? Also, emptiness, lust, anger, intoxication and darkness appear and disappear. They do not allow me to stop or meditate. It’s becoming one’s nature now to continuously seek something more; it appears like an explosion of silence. What is happening?
Acharya Prashant: I will have to disappoint you. Understanding is neither personal nor universal. Actually, understanding does not exist. If it does not exist, how can it be personal or universal or this or that? An issue is understood when the issue becomes meaningless for you and disappears. On the contrary, you commonly find that when people claim understanding of something, that something becomes even more meaningful and important to them.
That’s the hallmark of understanding: when something is understood, that something disappears from the mind. Gone! If it is still present in the mind, it is not yet understood. And now I will coin a new word: ‘understander’. It will be difficult for you to find it in the dictionary, but it’s a useful word, so stay with it.
A thing is understood when the thing disappears, and you become capable of understanding when you disappear.
The fact is that it is very improbable that one thing will disappear for you and the other thing will remain, because things are things. It is not likely that red will disappear for you and green will remain. It is not likely that squares will disappear for you and triangles will remain. When disappearance comes upon you, all geometry disappears. Hexagons, straight lines, circles, all disappear together, even spheres.
