Once a Brahmin sent his two sons to a learned pandit so that they could study the Vedas and the Upanishads. For twelve years they stayed in the pandit’s care, and then he sent them home.

The father looked at his two boys, and then said to one of them, “Have you understood Brahman?”

The son replied, “Yes, father.” And then he began to quote verse after verse of the scriptures, and explain at length their meaning. After some time, the father silenced him, and said, “My boy, you have not understood Brahman.”

Then he turned to the other boy, and asked the same question, “Have you understood Brahman?” But the second boy did not reply. The father repeated the question a second time, and a third, but the boy made no answer.

At last, the father smiled, and said, “Yes, I see that you have really understood Brahman.”