The mind by its very definition is nothing more than ignorance. As the level of ignorance varies, so does the person with that mind become the most knowledgeable entity in the world, or a total fool. Being limited in the sense that the mind arising out of the ego is not infinite, there is always a part that is outside the scope of the mind. In acquiring this, thus it is said that the mind has 'progressed' if this is for the benefit of some other entity. For instance organizational brain washing theory uses the refined word career advancement to address any knowledge acquired by the individual for the benfit of the company. In acquiring this knowledge it benefits the individual as well, since it benefits multiple companies thereby enlarging the scope of application.
Knowing that the mind is an inert entity, just how does it acquire knowledge of any form? Here again, knowledge is restricted to the world of illusions - knowledge of objects, events, etc, termed as lower knowledge. The mind is dependant for its existence on the light of the self or the infinite. It should be obvious that the infinite includes the mind (finite) and that the finite mind cannot exist by itself, without infinity for its support.
As a finite entity, though inert, the mind is not idle for sure. It constantly jumps around, interacts with other minds, objects (such as books for example) and keeps changing direction as life continues. It is convenient to visualize these aspects of the mind by personifying it as a river that flows. Think of zillions (uncountable really) of river currents flowing within the vast ocean. Really, the distinction between one current & the other is hard to verify as in some aspect or the other there is a definite connection between all.
In understanding the process of acquisition of knowledge, it is useful to know the nature of knowledge as well. It is well accepted and obvious that knowledge (even the lower form which we are concerned with) is infinite, existing by itself and needs no support of any kind. Definitely, knowledge does not depend on minds though it appears that a certain 'invention' has 'created' anew an object or a process. In essence, nothing is ever created new, but merely changed in form or function to appeal to the ignorance of the rest of the individuals as something 'new'. No doubt this is very useful to make a living.
There is a place for each individual in the vast ocean of life. This is determined by the type of knowledge each person acquires. Our living and roles in life are dictated by the limits of this knowledge. Our ability to interact with and help others is also to some extent dependant on being able to know what the needs of others are. Thereby, the flowing mind has to acquire the static and infinite body of knowledge that is ever present and complete. As the mind flows faster, deeper and for longer periods over certain domains of knowledge then the limited entity of the mind-body appears 'knowledgeable' because it is able to reproduce this knowledge quickly and coherently to another individual of repute (due to deeper, more coherent nature of this knowledge). This is a chain reaction or a pyramid structure, where the mind which has flown the deepest and fastest over the greatest amount of knowledge is considered most knowledgeable and spreads this awareness among a vast majority of people to be recognized as an 'expert'.
There are certain minds that can quickly flow deep into any part of the knowledge sphere, though it has never flow there. This is what is characterized as 'intelligence' - the ability to learn. Then there are other minds that are knowledgeable merely because they have flown in certain channels for long enough - this is the role of experience based learning over time.
Is knowledge really constant as assumed? The body of knowledge is constant at a fundamental level. The principles and nature of the rules governing it is definitely a constant. But having refined the knowledge in various ways, for instance to create an artificial object from known rules, the new object opens up and expands the sphere of knowledge. Think for example the invention of a simple gadget such as a computer mouse. Prior to its invention all the principles and rules to create that were already in existence - they have been so for ever. But post invention, the specific knowledge about how to create a mouse, to improve its technology, etc is new. In this sense the knowledge can be said to be varying at every instant, which doesn't make real sense as nothing is created new from ground up (atomic level or even subtler). To give a comprehensive picture, suffice it to say that if you define knowledge as the 'potential' to know something, then that is already inherent and hence never changes. But if you define it as actually one finite entity (like a human being) knowing something in particular, then that keeps changing. So, independent of finite entities & finite acquisitions of knowledge, knowledge itself is considered to be stand alone and constant through time and space.
Should the quality of living not improve as more and more knowledge is acquired by humans? This is obviously never true. Oft cited examples are invention of the atomic bomb, kalshnikov rifle, etc. Even a simple invention like the computer mouse, almost widely regarded as a breakthrough convenience invention, can cause much distress to a sizeable but growing section (repetitive strain victims!). Here rests the most important conclusion, that technology, human inventions, discoveries, etc, will NEVER be able to provide a better life than what was possible prior to these. An illustration - it may be said by some that air travel made life much easier, cutting short the time to go across continents which previously used to take ages. Then, this led to the necessity for other technologies - as more and more people made the journey to far off lands, the need arose for being able to keep in touch. Till this need was satisfied, there would be no respite for those that dared to make the journey. This led to other communication breakthroughs which made life simpler for travellers. Now there is the need to acquire these latest gadgets of communication - for which there is a need to earn more money adding fuel back to the need to travel to lucrative regions. Thus, there is no end in sight - it is nothing more than a vicious circle that seems to get better and better, but never really goes anywhere!
Most of us spend a major part of our lifetimes acquiring knowledge about all sorts of things - useful for a living, or otherwise. But what really needs to be done to stop swimming and be at once everywhere in this vast ocean? If the river current realises its mere illusory existence then the ocean is what remains. As awareness shifts away from the mind, then there is the possibility of knowing anything as and when required. This is the true meaning of 'sarvagna'. It is not one who knows everything, but one who can, if the need arises know anything! One is already a sarvagna but has to give up ignorance to realise and revel in that state.
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