Knowledge Vs Imagination: A Tested Theory !

Hello Guys!

So how was your Valentine's Day? I hope you enjoyed with your partners! And those who are singles....umm...maybe next time.

Well, here I am not going to discuss anything about Valentine's Day Bash but on a very different and a little controversial topic altogether. (That was just an icebreaker though :p ).

A few days back I posted a survey on Facebook to know what my friends think of Knowledge and Imagination. And as expected, I got wonderful set of responses from people of different backgrounds and age groups!

My friends Madhup Mohta, Srujitha, Ashik, Shahid Khan, Ajith Kumar, Piyush Jain Ambika Singh and Vladimir stood for Imagination, however

Kundan Pandey, Mukesh Kumar, Gowher Bhat, Sudeep Kumar, Manikant Sharma, Ameet Chauhaan, Suman Panda, Ankitha Reddy … voted Knowledge!

Harish Goyal, Sudeep Kumar, and Manikant Sharma gave a diplomatic answer by saying that both are necessary and I agree with them partly.

On the other hand, Atul Mathur choose WISDOM (combination of both)

Chandan Tripathi said " Choose one of them at office time one is imagination one in knowledge and Visa Versa at night.Now decide which one is better "

Sarcastic! I must say ... :)

Now I will let you know some amazing statements by few of the intellectual minds which I genuinely adore!

Neelabh Pratap Singh: Knowledge strengthens imagination. The more knowledge I have, the better I can imagine.

Raj K Pathak: Imagination backed by Knowledge can do wonders. Just imagination is living in dreams...

There was also a heated argument and disagreements between two of my friends Kapil and Mukesh

Kapil: Both are interrelated to each other. If you have the knowledge, you can imagine. And if you can imagine, you can get knowledge.

Mukesh: No, they aren't.

If you break your statement word by word you may realize Knowledge is the be all, end all. Rest all are the subsequent by-products.

Kapil: imagination is the backbone of knowledge. For example, if anything very complex and you wanted to understand than 1st you has to imagine the rough idea about it.then you can get the idea and improve your knowledge.Another example is writing a book. Its totally depend on your imagination And knowledge.

Mahesh Rajurkar: Knowledge can be the launching pad for imagination... But it's not necessarily required, imagination is an independent virtue which can take a man to sky heights...

Gurbir Singh: They co-exist.Knowledge can only advance by research, experience, and imagination.

Kundan Pandey : Knowledge because if I have the knowledge I shall know how to imagine.

Saurabh Bawari:  Imagination without knowledge is anarchy, Indian hate Pakistani without having any knowledge of conditions in Kashmir. Knowledge without imagination is slavery or confinement to the black box.The amalgamation of knowledge and imagination results in greatness, legends like Leonardo da Vinci. (This was my favorite! )

Well, then I got questioned ...what you believe ??

My answer based on experiments :

I gave a set of crayons to a 5-year old infant and then showed him a tiny rubber toy bird which he drew with his little hands and colored it with exactly same shade, yellow! 

He was unaware of the name of yellow shade or the bird-shaped toy, however, he picked it up and made a yellow bird out of it. (it was indeed, a beautiful piece of art ! )

On the other hand, I asked an illiterate person (about 25 years of age ) to imagine the girl of his dreams. He did..however, he was not able to use the apt words to explain what his imagination was really like. He was not able to express her features and beauty because he was not able to use best words to define her. (However, we tried our best to understand him ! )

My above-given examples are contradictory to each other! One says imagination and observation other says Knowledge or Education.

I definitely agree Knowlege is Integral but without Imagination it is IMPOSSIBLE!

Knowlege does give shape to Imagination however in that process the shape of our imagination is directly dependent on the limited attributes of Knowledge.

Maybe our imagination is FAR MORE than what can be expressed in words, terminologies, equations or algorithms!

If knowledge is bigger then why the most righteous words of our life cannot be defined in any theory. Words like GOD, LOVE, and DREAMS!

Answer of Albert Einstine to this question is :

"Both. I sometimes feel I am right, but do not know it. When two expeditions of scientists went to test my theory I was convinced they would confirm my theory. I wasn't surprised when the results confirmed my intuition, but I would have been surprised had I been wrong. I'm enough of an artist to draw freely on my imagination, which I think is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

Apart from being a Writer and Software Engineer, I am the student of Indian Classical Music! In the world of Shastra Sangeet, there are two very popular names i.e Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande and Vishnu Digambar Paluskar who were considered the geniuses of Music World. They tried to draft music in theory which is indeed a very difficult task to achieve. Definitely, MUSIC EXISTED even before that, however, it was turned into theory later to make it more understanding and easy to grasp! However according to great artists: An art is felt not read! 

There are many things which cannot be defined and that does not mean they do not exist. Yes, we can explain things by correlation! But their actual identity may require a new set of definitions etc.

Imagination and Knowledge are parallel however if measured in a different dimension then Imagination is expeditious and exponential! 

"Knowledge concerns itself with what is present to the senses but is also a stored and shared repository of publicly acceptable thoughts, many frozen into physical symbols (written or spoken), transmitted through time and space. Knowledge coded, stored and expressed using symbols can, because of the entrancing flexibility of symbol systems, be broken up and reassembled in a multitude of novel combinations. It is this act of recombination which underlies the power to imagine. Our imagination is and must be grounded in our knowledge. The more memories we accumulate, the more material we have to work with, the richer and stranger are the fruits of our imagination."

 If Imagination is raw data then Knowledge is Information! Without data, information cannot be created! 

#knowledge #imagination #artist #author #ayushisingh