There are two kinds of knowledge, namely, pará and apará. Apará knowledge seeks to subjectivize the external objectivity, while pará aims at the subjectivization of the internal objectivity.

Apará is temporary and imperfect in the very nature of things. If a graduate in any subject were to reappear for examination in the same subject with the same question paper after a considerable lapse of time, that person might not be able to pass the examination because in the meantime they would have forgotten much of the apará knowledge they possessed at the time of the examination. Moreover, if the medium is defective in some way or other, the very initial impartation of the knowledge may be defective. There may be a printing mistake, or there may be an error on the part of the author himself, or the external objectivity which forms the subject may itself have changed and what was taught about it some time ago may no longer be correct.

Pará knowledge, on the other hand, is always exact and correct and permanent and lasting, because its subject is Parama Puruśa Himself.

Comparatively speaking and in ultimate terms, it is pará knowledge which is worthwhile rather than apará knowledge. But because Ananda Marga is a path on which the external objectivity is not ignored, although the ultimate goal remains the ultimate subjectivity, that is, Parama Puruśa, the correct course is to gain the maximum pará knowledge and along with it to acquire such and so much of apará knowledge as may be found helpful and necessary while dealing with the external objectivity.

Shastra knowledge and shástra knowledge are both necessary. If the one is lacking the other gets jeopardized. Shastra [literally, “weapon”] denotes what protects the physical, the metaphysical and the spiritual existence. Shástra, which has its root in the word shásana [administration], means the discipline that leads to spiritual perfection. If there be no protection for the physical and the metaphysical existence, then the spiritual journey cannot begin at all. If a sádhaka [spiritual practitioner] cannot have the security of life and limb to perform his sádhaná, the very question of sádhaná will not arise. Without shástra, on the other hand, shastra will be useless and aimless, because the ultimate objective of Parama Puruśa can be gained only through shástra.

There are fifty mental propensities in a human being. The lower creatures have fewer and fewer propensities as each species descends lower and lower on the scale. The human is the most complex creature. Each propensity is controlled by its respective gland. Forty-nine of the fifty pertain to the field of apará knowledge, while the fiftieth is the pará propensity, ruled by its gland.

[Bábá demonstrated this by touching some of these fifty glands, including the pará gland, and by obtaining answers at each stage from the sádhaka who was the medium of the demonstration.]

There are the following three mental attitudes for a sádhaka, vis-a-vis the Lord, in rising order of excellence:

Good: “He belongs to everybody and therefore He belongs to me also.”

Better: “He belongs to me and therefore He belongs to everybody.”

Best: “He is my personal property and He does not belong to anybody else.”