There are two kinds of power. One is brute power-the power exercised by men like Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin and such dictators. They used their power to terrorize people and subjugate them to their authority. In doing so, they did not care if people suffered or the world benefited by their actions. There is another kind of power. This is the power of knowledge – the power of men who use their knowledge to make the world a better place to live or to serve humanity.
They may include honest political leaders, doctors, scientists, teachers, spiritual leaders, engineers and many more. Unlike money or fame, knowledge, once acquired, stays with us. That is why parents stress the importance of a good education.
A good education lays a solid foundation for our life. During difficult periods like a recession when many people face job losses, a person who has thorough knowledge about his field of activity will never be laid off. The more we know about things, the more equipped we will be to handle all kinds of problems. The sensible human being never stops learning. There are so many things going on in the world on a daily basis. New findings in science, medicine and new developments even in the local community around us are reported daily.
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If we keep abreast of such things, some day we may be able to use them in our favor. In the Mahabharatha’, there is a story of how the five Pandavas run into a yaksha who inhabits a river. The story goes that one day, during their exile, Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, was very thirsty and asked her sons to get some water. One by one, the Pandavas went in search of water.
Each came to the same river, but as he bent to drink from it, he heard the voice of a yaksha which said that if he drank the water before answering the yaksha’s questions, he would die. All except Yudhishtira ignored the warning and fell dead. But Yudhishtira alone answered the questions for he had the knowledge and the wisdom to recognize that his questioner was no ordinary being. In fact, he was Dharmadeva or Yama, the god of death, who was also Yudhishtira’s own father.
Recently, an arrested terrorist of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba revealed that the dreaded organization is targeting the senior scientists and engineers of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Even earlier, terrorist outfits have targeted India’s intelligentsia. Attacks on IT giants, Infosys and Wipro, and the aborted attack on Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, are examples. A ‘Times of India’ report says that the Pakistani army and air force’s chief aim is to attack the ‘centers of India’s knowledge power’.
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It also added that in a recent war game conducted by think-tanks in the US, Pakistan ended the game with their most powerful weapons launching attacks on the symbols of India’s technological and innovative power. Isn’t this enough to prove that knowledge is power? The Pakistani military recognizes this truth, hence the attacks. Knowledge is a valuable tool. When used wisely, it can benefit us and others too. This is a kind of benign power unlike the evil power that Hitler and his ilk wielded.