In Search of the Miraculous

what a tremendous value these ideas had, I became almost terrified at the thought of

how easily I could have passed them by, how easily I could have known nothing

whatever of G.'s existence, or how easily I could have again lost sight of him if I had

not asked then whether I could see him again.

In almost every one of his lectures G. reverted to a theme which he evidently

considered to be of the utmost importance but which was very difficult for many of us

to assimilate.

"There are," he said, "two lines along which man's development proceeds, the line of knowledge and the line of being. In right evolution the line of knowledge and the line of being develop simultaneously, parallel to, and helping one another. But if the line of knowledge gets too far ahead of the line of being, or if the line of being gets ahead of

the line of knowledge, man's development goes wrong, and sooner or later it must

come to a standstill.

"People understand what 'knowledge' means. And they understand the possibility of

different levels of knowledge. They understand that knowledge may be lesser or

greater, that is to say, of one quality or of another quality. But they do not understand this in relation to 'being.' 'Being,' for them, means simply 'existence' to which is

opposed just 'non-existence.' They do not understand that being or existence may be of

very different levels and categories. Take for instance the being of a mineral and of a

plant. It is a different being. The being of a plant and of an animal is again a different being. The being of an animal and of a man is a different being. But the being of two

people can differ from one another more than the being of a mineral and of an animal.

This is exactly what people do not understand. And they do not understand that

knowledge depends on being. Not only do they not understand this latter but they definitely do not wish to understand it. And especially in Western culture it is

considered that a man may possess great knowledge, for example he may be an able

scientist, make discoveries, advance science, and at the same time he may be, and has

the right to be, a petty, egoistic, caviling, mean, envious, vain, naive, and absentminded man. It seems to be considered here that a professor must always forget his umbrella everywhere.

"And yet it is his being. And people think that his knowledge does not depend on

his being. People of Western culture put great value on the level of a man's knowledge

but they do not value the level of a man's being and are not ashamed of the low level

of their own being. They do not even understand what it means. And they do not

understand that a man's knowledge depends on the level of his being.

"If knowledge gets far ahead of being, it becomes theoretical and abstract and

inapplicable to life, or actually harmful, because instead of serving life and helping

people the better to struggle with the difficulties they meet, it begins to complicate

man's life, brings new difficulties into it, new troubles and calamities which were not

there before.

"The reason for this is that knowledge which is not in accordance with being cannot

be large enough for, or sufficiently suited to, man's real needs. It will always be a

knowledge of one thing together with ignorance of another thing; a knowledge of the detail without a knowledge of the whole; a knowledge of the form without a knowledge of the essence.

"Such preponderance of knowledge over being is observed in present-day culture.

The idea of the value and importance of the level of being is completely forgotten.

And it is forgotten that the level of knowledge is determined by the level of being.

Actually at a given level of being the possibilities of knowledge are limited and finite.

Within the limits of a given being the quality of knowledge cannot be changed, and the accumulation of information of one and the same nature, within already

known limits, alone is possible. A change in the nature of knowledge is possible only

with a change in the nature of being.

"Taken in itself, a man's being has many different sides. The most characteristic

feature of a modem man is the absence of unity in him and, further, the absence in him of even traces of those properties which he most likes to ascribe to himself, that is,

'lucid consciousness,' 'free will,' a 'permanent ego or I,' and the 'ability to do.' It may surprise you if I say that the chief feature of a modem man's being which explains

everything else that is lacking in him is sleep.