Unto Research

Week 9

Question:
What are ways to bring a sacred vision to a secular field?

Reflection:
“We have a queer notion that there are certain pairs that never go together. Examples: action and renunciation; jnana and bhakti; science and religion; East and West; and so on. Another such pair is sadhutva and panditya, piety and scholarship. A person who is a scholar, people think, is only a scholar and not a Man of Realization, or a sadhaka. Those in the spiritual field think that a sadhu is greater than a scholar and has nothing to do with scholarship; scholars maintain that the sadhus are not scholarly — and they have nothing to do with education and research.

I think this is only a myth. I recited a shloka in salutations to Bhagavan Shri Shankaracharya. He is shruti-smriti-purananam-alayam. How can there be a greater scholar than Shankaracharya? He was indeed a sadhu. Similarly, Saint Tulasidas was a great scholar. He was a great poet, a great devotee. A scholar can be a devotee, a devotee can be a scholar. An academician can be a spiritualist, a spiritualist can also be a academician.

That is why Shankaracharya said, ‘If we do shastra-adhyayana but not realize the Truth, the adhyayana becomes incomplete.’ Study of scriptures and spiritual realization should go together.” ~ Swami Tejomayananda