In plain words
There is no greater Ajñāna than this.
From learning there is no happiness at all in this world. Only when you follow spirituality along with this learning will it give you happiness. Within this spirituality, general knowledge grows too. One who lacks GK gains nothing, however much he studies. You know, there was one called Kāmāvadhāni. He was a great avadhāni. A great Vedic scholar. He would recite the Veda all twenty-four hours. That one thought was always with him, poor man. No one else in this land of Bhārata had studied as much Veda as he had. He had received the great title ‘Ghanāpāṭī’. From the moment he rose at dawn until he slept at night, he went on reciting. He knew nothing but that Veda. GK zero. Without GK, how is one to live in the world? Ask him what four and seven make, and he says nine. He did not know even that much. So GK is very necessary.
Man is more precious than all the wealth of the world
Today a boy has caught a fever. How was it in the old days? They roasted dry ginger, fresh ginger, coriander and pepper, all together, and when its juice was given to drink, this cough and cold would go within a single day. For this sunstroke too there is a fine remedy. It goes away in a moment. Cut an onion across, tie a thread to it and tie it round the neck, and the sunstroke subsides. Its smell makes the sunstroke subside. When we travel, if we cut an onion and carry it in our pocket, sunstroke will not touch us. There are many such home remedies. Because all the modern educated people of today scorn all this, calling it crude medicine and the old days foul days, all the modern students fall into many hardships and sorrows. But what students must recognise is ‘Old is gold’.