Eighteen items in the culture of knowledge

Expressions researched:
"eighteen items" |"eighteen or twenty items of knowledge"

SB Canto 1

According to Bhagavad-gītā there are eighteen items in culturing knowledge. And all culture of knowledge culminates in devotional service to the Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva.

SB 1.2.28-29, Purport:

According to Bhagavad-gītā there are eighteen items in culturing knowledge. By such culture of knowledge one becomes gradually prideless, devoid of vanity, nonviolent, forbearing, simple, devoted to the great spiritual master, and self-controlled. By culture of knowledge one becomes unattached to hearth and home and becomes conscious of the miseries due to death, birth, old age and disease. And all culture of knowledge culminates in devotional service to the Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva. Therefore, Vāsudeva is the ultimate aim in culturing all different branches of knowledge. Culture of knowledge leading one to the transcendental plane of meeting Vāsudeva is real knowledge. Physical knowledge in its various branches is condemned in the Bhagavad-gītā as ajñāna, or the opposite of real knowledge. The ultimate aim of physical knowledge is to satisfy the senses, which means prolongation of the term of material existence and thereby continuance of the threefold miseries. So prolonging the miserable life of material existence is nescience. But the same physical knowledge leading to the way of spiritual understanding helps one to end the miserable life of physical existence and to begin the life of spiritual existence on the plane of Vāsudeva.

Sri Isopanisad

These eighteen items combine to form a gradual process by which real knowledge can be developed. Except for these, all other methods are considered to be in the category of nescience.

Sri Isopanisad 10, Purport:

As advised in Chapter Thirteen of the Bhagavad-gītā (13.8-12), one should culture knowledge in the following way:

(1) One should become a perfect gentleman and learn to give proper respect to others.

(2) One should not pose himself as a religionist simply for name and fame.

(3) One should not become a source of anxiety to others by the actions of his body, by the thoughts of his mind, or by his words.

(4) One should learn forbearance even in the face of provocation from others.

(5) One should learn to avoid duplicity in his dealings with others.

(6) One should search out a bona fide spiritual master who can lead him gradually to the stage of spiritual realization, and one must submit himself to such a spiritual master, render him service and ask relevant questions.

(7) In order to approach the platform of self-realization, one must follow the regulative principles enjoined in the revealed scriptures.

(8) One must be fixed in the tenets of the revealed scriptures.

(9) One should completely refrain from practices which are detrimental to the interest of self-realization.

(10) One should not accept more than he requires for the maintenance of the body.

(11) One should not falsely identify himself with the gross material body, nor should one consider those who are related to his body to be his own.

(13) One should not be attached to more than the necessities of life required for spiritual advancement.

(14) One should not be more attached to wife, children and home than the revealed scriptures ordain.

(15) One should not be happy or distressed over desirables and undesirables, knowing that such feelings are just created by the mind.

(16) One should become an unalloyed devotee of the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and serve Him with rapt attention.

(17) One should develop a liking for residence in a secluded place with a calm and quiet atmosphere favorable for spiritual culture, and one should avoid congested places where nondevotees congregate.

(18) One should become a scientist or philosopher and conduct research into spiritual knowledge, recognizing that spiritual knowledge is permanent whereas material knowledge ends with the death of the body.

These eighteen items combine to form a gradual process by which real knowledge can be developed. Except for these, all other methods are considered to be in the category of nescience. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, a great ācārya, maintained that all forms of material knowledge are merely external features of the illusory energy and that by culturing them one becomes no better than an ass. This same principle is found here in Śrī Īśopaniṣad. By advancement of material knowledge, modern man is simply being converted into an ass. Some materialistic politicians in spiritual guise decry the present system of civilization as satanic, but unfortunately they do not care about the culture of real knowledge as it is described in the Bhagavad-gītā. Thus they cannot change the satanic situation.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Bhagavad-gītā, Bhagavān said. He has given the definition of knowledge, eighteen items. You'll find in the Thirteenth Chapter. The principal point is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is knowledge. Then all knowledge will come automatically.

Lecture on SB 7.9.13 -- Montreal, August 21, 1968:

So unless you are in the spiritual platform, the so-called knowledge has no value. That is not knowledge. That is ignorance. So real knowledge means spiritual knowledge, that "I am Brahman. I am spirit." Then,

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā

na śocati na kāṅkṣati

samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu

mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām

(BG 18.54)

Other things will follow, and he will be very jolly. This is... A person in knowledge should be in, I mean to say, happiness. That is a sign of knowledge. So one who is in knowledge, he is not disturbed. What was my answer? Huh? (break) Yad anyat tad ajñānam iti matam. Bhagavad-gītā, Bhagavān said. He has given the definition of knowledge, eighteen items. You'll find in the Thirteenth Chapter. Ahiṁsā. What is called? There are eighteen items. You'll find in the Thirteenth Chapter. The most important point is māṁ ca vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate. The principal point is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is knowledge. Then all knowledge will come automatically. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcana. If you take to this knowledge, that Kṛṣṇa or the Supreme Lord, Absolute Truth, He is eternal master and we are all eternal servitors, this very knowledge will elevate you to other platforms of knowledge. Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcana sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ (SB 5.18.12). Then all the symptoms of knowledge will automatically manifest in his person. Therefore this is the best process of becoming a man of knowledge or wise man.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

There are eighteen or twenty items of knowledge. The human society is not interested with those eighteen items, and they are simply interested in so-called economic development, technology, mental speculation. That is ignorance.

Room Conversations -- July 26, 1975, Laguna Beach:

Prabhupāda: Refer these verses from Bhagavad-gītā: amānitvam adambhitvam ahiṁsā kṣāntir ārjavam... (aside:) Little water.

Satsvarūpa:

amānitvam adambhitvam

ahiṁsā kṣāntir ārjavam

ācāryopāsanaṁ śaucaṁ

sthairyam ātma-vinigrahaḥ

(BG 13.8)

Prabhupāda: Go on.

Satsvarūpa:

indriyārtheṣu vairāgyam

anahaṅkāra eva ca

janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi

duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam

aśaktir anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ

putra-dāra-gṛhādiṣu

nityaṁ ca sama-cittatvam

iṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu

mayi cānanya-yogena

bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī

vivikta-deśa-sevitvam

aratir jana-saṁsadi

adhyātma-jñāna-nityatvaṁ

tattva-jñānārtha-darśanam

etaj jñānam iti proktam

ajñānaṁ yad ato 'nyathā

(Bg. 13.8-12)

Prabhupāda: This is knowledge. Etaj jñānam. The items prescribed by Kṛṣṇa, that is knowledge. And everything is no knowledge. Translation, you read.

Satsvarūpa: "Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people, accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge,..."

Prabhupāda: This is knowledge, path of knowledge.

Satsvarūpa: "... and what is contrary to these is ignorance."

Prabhupāda: That's it. There are eighteen or twenty items of knowledge. The human society is not interested with those eighteen items, and they are simply interested in so-called economic development, technology, mental speculation. That is ignorance. That is not knowledge. They do not know what is knowledge.