In plain words
But today we push worldly knowledge away, forget Brahma-jñāna, and follow some knowledge or other. What knowledge that is, we cannot understand. So we must develop what is called general knowledge. It is general knowledge that stays with us as our companion in daily life and helps us make a success of life in every way.
A farmer had two sons. The elder son followed his father and, in one way or another, went on living his life in his father's footsteps. The second son was young, so he roamed about as he pleased. In the company of many friends he went on wasting all his time. Meanwhile the father died. The elder son, to his younger brother: ‘Dear one, let each of us take up one responsibility. You look after the fields; I will look after all the village affairs.’ That is what he told him. Since there was a little money, this boy did as he liked; instead of going to the fields, in the pride of that money he went on gathering friends. As things went on this way, some of the friends gave the second son bad advice. ‘Simpleton! While you are told “the fields, the fields” and go roaming about outside, your brother is earning well and piling it all up. So you stay at home yourself, and see that your brother is the one sent to the fields,’ he said. This second son had not studied. He had studied something, a little here and there, but he had studied crazy studies. He studied studies empty of worldly knowledge. Then the elder brother spoke to him with nothing but good words: ‘Brother, you have no worldly knowledge. So if you step into this you will meet with some mishaps; so be patient for a while, give up your friends' words, go to the fields and keep looking after them,’ he advised him. But these friends' promptings were very strong, and so he defied his brother's words. Then, having no other way, the brother sat down beside him: ‘Dear one, move about with me for some time; after that, taking as your guide the way I conduct myself, you can live in this society,’ he said. Very well: he sat on the verandah along with his brother. He was watching everything his brother did. One day the village elder, poor man, lost his mother, and came to the elder brother in his grief. Then this elder brother said, consoling him, ‘Brother, your mother was a woman of great name. She was a very great devotee. She was not mother to us alone. She was mother to the whole village. She was like a mother to all of us. Losing such a mother is a sorrow not to you alone but to me as well,’ he said, consoling him. He consoled him, telling him he must bear it. ‘Is this all that worldly knowledge is?’ he thought, and he took it as his model. ‘Well, can I not do even this much? You go to the fields; I will see to things here.’