Dear Vikram swamy,

I have been in similar situation; have been asking questions from young age. Some teachers do give answer and encourage; some others discourage. But fortunately the encouragements stayed with me and the discouragements did not kill the spirit of enquiry. Over time I learnt to seek answers through studying and not just asking. Now when I look back, I am grateful to even those teachers who discouraged me, because they have helped me learn how to ask question, how to receive answers, and how to seek answers through studying / personal application.

One key lesson I learnt along the way is, while we are eager to ask questions, we must be eager to actually hear the answer attentively and process that in our thoughts. We may understand only 50 or 75% of the answer, but we must process that, and practise that / apply that. For example, when someone tells you that pi is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle, and it is always equal to 22/7, we must internalize the answer, draw a few different circles and check if this ratio is true. When we do so we will automatically understand it completely; even the unclear part will become clear. But the mistake we tend to do is, when an answer is given to us, we focus on the part we don’t understand and ask the next question and next question and the next question, without actually trying to apply what is being explained. Using the same example, when pi is said to be the ratio 22/7, immediately we may ask why not 23/7 or 22/8? Such questions give the impression that we are only eager to show off our intelligence by asking questions than to actually receive the answers. Then the teacher may start ignoring us.

As our Swamy explained in a recent En Pani, asking questions must be accompanied by self study and  practise.

First of all we have to really put in effort to understand the person who is earnestly trying to give an answer.

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to share this with you.

adiyen dasan.