India, Sept. 11 -- In our current life, we feel that acquiring wisdom is instant and much easier through social media by watching a reel or a video or reading a message that comes on WhatsApp, without the need for any discipline in life. The word "Upanishad" itself tells a different story.

The term Upanishad is often translated as "sitting down near," referring to a student sitting close to a teacher, ready to receive knowledge with humility and full attention. But scholars also read a deeper layer within it, "upa-ni-shad," meaning to sit close to the fire, tending it patiently, since fire only reveals its power to those willing to feed it consistently, not those who approach it once and expect illumination.

Wisdom in the Vedic traditio...