At the birth the mind of an infant is the clean slate. As
the time goes by, step by step the subject learns new things and gains
knowledge. With the help of his or her insight one learns to perceive and make
sense of the world around him or her and perform with the individual’s
knowledge. Clearly, wisdom is not guaranteed by birth. Conscious effort from
the individual is required. Greater the effort greater is the gain of knowledge
to an individual.
Wisdom may be described in various different ways like (a)
the knowledge gained by having many experiences in life, (b) knowledge of what
is proper or reasonable (c) the ability to think and act using knowledge,
experience (d) understanding and common sense. Whatever way wisdom is defined,
fundamental to the wisdom is that it takes time and comes with experience,
development of the ability to think, analyse, judge and act.
Wisdom is not something that one is born with but one
acquires it over time. A person to gain wisdom has to make efforts to
understand people, things and events and then apply his or her perception,
judgment and action to the projects. For an example: Chanakya, Siddhartha,
Aristotle and Plato are very renowned for acquiring wisdom. Though they weren't
born wise, but they gained wisdom over time and with a lot of their effort.
Years in the life bring experience. Knowledge with
experience is wisdom. Nonetheless life is short to experience everything by
self hence one has to depend on the experience of others. However, an
individual can, certainly, benefit from the wisdom of ages passed on in the
form of legends, stories, books etc to learn from them. In such a scenario too,
the wisdom of ages can only act as a guiding light. It is up to the individual
to apply and use the wisdom to suit to his/her position and gain from it.
Wisdom is not the by-product of age alone. One may be old
enough and still unwise. Oscar Wilde said, " With age comes wisdom, but
sometimes age comes alone.” Wisdom
requires effort and hard work with patience.
In nutshell, wisdom cannot be taught or transferred from
one to other. The university buildings
impart knowledge and not wisdom. Only when the person takes pains to make
efforts with hard work, he or she gains wisdom and can be recognized as a wise
person.
(Words- 413)
