What is Svarga - Heaven

Once upon a time, a young and an older monk met near a village in Punjab.
They were from different orders – different schools of thought. 

After the formal greetings, the younger monk challenged the older monk to a debate – which was a quite common practice in those days, especially between different orders of monasteries. 

The older monk was not interested in debate but the younger monk insisted upon it.
“Enter into a debate or accept your defeat without contest”- he said.
“But we need a judge. And there is no one around.” The older monk said.

The younger monk, who was very keen on showing off his knowledge, looked around and saw a farmer plowing his farm.
“We will ask him to be the judge.”
So, he went to that farmer and asked him to become the judge while the two of them have a debate on the Scriptures.

The farmer hesitated. 

“I don’t know anything about the Scriptures. I am an illiterate farmer. What do I know?” He said.

But the younger monk was too eager to start a debate and did not want to lose the opportunity to show off his knowledge.
To convince the farmer, he said “all you have to do is ask a question. We both will take turns answering your question - And then you tell us whose answer you like. That’s all.”

The farmer thought for a moment and said:
“Well - I don’t know much. But I have heard that if we do good deeds then we go to Swarg (Heaven). 

Tell me what exactly is Swarg?"

The older monk asked the younger one to answer first since he was too eager for the debate.
The younger monk immediately started reciting shlokas from Bhagavad Geeta - verses from Kathopanishad and Mantras from Vedas in Sanskrit. 

Clearly, he was very well-read and had memorized so many verses from the Scriptures.

With his mouth wide open and jaws dropped, the uneducated, ignorant farmer simply stared at his face – without understanding a single word he was saying.

After about 20 minutes of reciting the Scriptures, the younger monk stopped - looked at the older monk, and proudly said:
“Now! Your turn. Let’s see what you have to say - and how much do you know.”

The older monk calmly looked at the farmer and said:
“My dear farmer. Every day, you come to your farm early in the morning and work hard for hours – tilling, plowing, and cultivating your farm in the scorching heat of summer. At noon, your wife brings lunch for you.
By then, the sun is shining right above your head and its heat is becoming unbearable. 

So, you sit down in the shade under a tree – and take out the Rotis (bread) along with some Saag and achaar (pickles) wrapped in a rough cloth – take a few sips of cold Lassi brought in a round clay pot to keep it cool.
With sweat rolling down your face and hands when you enjoy eating those Rotis and drinking that cold Lassi under the cooling shade of a tree – 

     That my friend is Swarga - the joy of heaven.”

The framer’s eyes lit up – a smile ran over his entire face.
With great excitement, he looked at the older monk and said:
“You are the winner, Sir”
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Judge your audience before delivering your discourse.

Try to grasp their level of comprehension and try to speak in their language - in a way that is easier for them to understand.
A person might become knowledgeable by learning lots of books and Scriptures, but wisdom comes from experience and understanding life on day to day basis.

Learning should not be for the purpose of showing off - for entering into arguments and debates and trying to win.
Knowledge should make one humble – not arrogant.
                                 ‘Rajan Sachdeva’