What if you could learn hundreds of subjects, remember countless facts and understand the world around you, yet still feel that something essential was missing? That is the powerful question at the heart of a famous dialogue between Narada and Sanat Kumar in the Chandogya Upanishad. Narada approaches Sanat Kumar because he wants to understand the highest truth. When asked what he already knows, Narada lists an extraordinary range of learning. He knows the Vedas, grammar, astronomy, mathematics, rituals, philosophy and many other branches of knowledge. Yet he admits something deeply human. All this knowledge has not freed him from sorrow. Sanat Kumar's response takes the conversation in an unexpected direction. Perhaps knowing about the world is not the same as knowing the one who experiences it.
