Does knowledge increase sorrow?
Those sentences which are colored in orange are from Maharishi Dayananda Saraswati book Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth) and those which are colored in black are Jerry Thomas’s response.
"….yes, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge and I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow."
C. Now mark reader! Wisdom and knowledge, that are synonymous terms, are believed by them to be two different things. Who but an ignorant man will say that increase in knowledge is the cause of grief and sorrow? Leave alone the idea that God is the author of the Bible, even an enlightened man could not have written it.
So far we have firefly discussed the Old Testament. Next we shall write a little about the New Testament that comprises Gospels according to St. Mathew, etc., and is held in great reverence by the Christians who call it the Bible. We should not examine it and see what kind of book it is.
Answer: By now one wonders whether Maharishi even knows the language properly. Knowledge is connected to facts while the wisdom is the correct application of that knowledge.
As for the question as to whether knowledge increases sorrow, one must understand the scope of the study of the author of Ecclesiastes and the also the final conclusion that he had reached.
His scope of study was narrowly defined and very clearly and precisely by the author himself:
Ecclesiastes 1: 13- “And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven.”
In other words, the author has excluded the wisdom of heaven and sets to study the universe without it. His conclusion was knowledge increases sorrow. Who can deny that fact?
However, he did not stop at that. After limiting the scope of the study to things under the heaven, he found it meaningless. However, he finally summarized by saying that though the knowledge under the sun increases the sorrow, there is something more worth.
Ecclesiastes 12:12 “And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. LET US HEAR THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER: Fear God and keep His commandment, for this is man's all.”
By now, it is obvious that the Maharishi did not wait to hear the conclusion of any passage he quoted from the Old Testament leave alone this one. He merely jumped with questions after twisting the word of God.
We have so far proved that the Holy Bible is the Word of God and Maharishi was baseless and erroneous in all his conclusions. We will now proceed to the New Testament.
