Understanding or Realizing?

What is the difference in between Understanding & Realizing? There is actually a very thin line. Okay let me put it this way, which one is more powerful, play along with me..”I have understood that fact” or “I’ve realized that fact”..Which one do you think is more powerful as in has more impact on you than the other? Let’s see if we have the same point of view towards this or not. This is 21^st century, the era of Science/Scientific Technology..so why not try to define it with Science, & by “with science” I don’t mean with a few scientific calculations, which have no use in our day-to-day life, by the phrase “with science” I meant let’s start off with someone who practically contributed almost 70% in the world of Physics. I’m talking about Mr. Newton, everyone knows about him & his famous theories..everyone also knows how he actually got there, yes it all started with falling down of an Apple. Now at that time did he understand the fact “It always falls down, instead of going up.” or he realized the fact “It always falls down, instead of going up.” What is the difference? That’s exactly what we are going to figure out this time. He knew, all of the world knew that a fruit always falls down instead of going up towards the sky, meaning they all understood the fact, as they’d seen it happening with their own eyes so when did he realize that it always falls down instead of going up; When it hit his head. Stay with me for a while I’m getting there. All that time he’d seen it happening and never questioned the reason unless & until it hit his head, he felt the pain which made him question practically at first “Why does it always fall down?” He realized there is something more to it which inspired him to find out “what?” So basically understanding deals with our intellect..but realization is something that deals with our one or more senses; Something that is understood with our intellect as well as by our heart/emotions. Here’s a fact: You can understand something without realizing it but you can never realize something without understanding it. For example, your friend has lost his father now you understand the fact but do you realize the pain of losing a father unless it has happened to you. Someone who has faced the pain already will realize the fact after understanding the situation. Understanding is something that is absolutely related to our psyche, we often say “yes I understand that” but in order to realize the same fact we’ll have to face the same situation. So in one sentence Realization is a fully understood fact. Imagine the problems in your mathematics book: now do you ever say that “yes I’ve realized the problem” when it’s a simple math problem? No, you always say “I’ve understood this problem and now I can solve it.” In order to realize the problem you’ll have to create an artificial environment with the given circumstances in the real world, which is impossible in some cases. But I do remember our teacher would try to explain the chapter “Lights” by performing a few examples given in the book just to make us realize though he failed to make us realize what a Mirage is ‘cause we don’t live in a desert & to realize..it requires an experience. Now unless & until I see a Mirage with my own eyes (One of our five senses) & I run after it to satisfy my other senses, I won’t realize it, ‘til then I’ve only understood a scientific fact that there is something called “Mirage”. Often we realize something after an experience, with realization comes the satisfaction of our senses. Experience is something we can touch/feel, in other words ; It can’t be an abstract. Now an abstract is understood by our intellect, it can’t be realized. Have you ever realized the idea of Humanity without being Humane? But you understand what is Humanity right? There, it’s quite simple. Another extremely simple example: suppose there is a pen on the table right in front of you, now you understand it’s a pen not a pillow by its appearance/configuration but when you go there to touch it that’s when you realize it’s a pen, by touching it or by writing with it you’ll eventually figure out one or more qualities of the pen, like if the color is blue/black/red, the body is made of plastic/rubber etc..along with that you also experienced something.

So have you understood this?