What is IGNORANCE

Devotee: I have been anxious for a long time to ask You some things and to learn the answers from You. Today, I have the chance. This mind (manas) and its principle are unknown categories. Their meanings don’t get fixed and clear without actual experience. But Swami, this delusion of the objective world (samsara) overpowers us, thick and strong, like the darkness of clouds in the rainy season. What is this mighty force that drags us along? This is what has been bothering me. I feel that people like me should understand these things clearly in the very beginning. Will you kindly enlighten me?

Swami: Well, my boy. What am I to say? You are suffering from fright, imagining a tree stump seen in the park to be a person. That is, you are mistaking the non-dual (a-dwaitha), the full (purna), which is Brahman as a separate incomplete soul (jiva) and suffering from that error. That delusion is the cause of all your sufferings.

Devotee: How, then, did this delusion come about?

Swami: You slept, or you dreamed. You slept the sleep of ignorance (a-jnana) and delusion (moha). Therefore, you dreamed this objective world. Awake, and you will have no more dreams. When the dream is gone, the delusion also goes.

Devotee: Swami, what is this ignorance? What are its characteristics? How does it operate?

Swami: That, which is attached to the body and feels as “I” is the individual soul (jiva). The soul is outwardfaced; it believes all this mutable creation (jagath) and objective world; it is immersed in both. When the soul ignores and forgets its non-dual embodiment (a-dwaitha-swarupa), we call it ignorance (a-jnana). Is that clear?

Devotee: But Swami, the spiritual texts, all of them, say that this objective world is caused by illusion (maya).

You are now saying it is due to ignorance. What is the distinction between the two?

Swami: Ignorance (a-jnana) is known variously as illusion (maya), primordial matter (pradhana), nature (prakriti), unmanifest, ignorance (a-vidya), delusion (thamas), etc. Hence, understand this well: the objective world is the consequence of ignorance.

Devotee: How can ignorance produce this objective world; I want to know from you, Guru-God (Guru-deva).

Swami: Know that ignoranc has two powers: the veiling power (avarana-sakthi) and the projecting power (vikshepa-sakthi). It veils Reality and projects upon it the unreal. The veiling power acts in two different ways: veiling with untruth and veiling with appearance.

When a spiritually wise person (jnani) and ignorant people (a-jnanis) meet, even though the wise one teaches that the Atma is One and non-dual, the ignorant ones deny it, because they can’t grasp the reality so easily. Even when they hear the truth, they don’t have the faith and steadfastness to imbibe it, so they dismiss it with a shrug of indifference. This is the veiling with untruth.

Now about veiling with appearance. Even when someone believes by study of the scriptures (sastras) and by the grace of providence that there is non-dual Atma, one can be carried away by cursory and superficial arguments and dismiss it as non-existent. Though one has the consciousness (chit) that is aware of the very thing that one denies, the delusion (moha) makes one declare that it is non-existent. This is the sinister role of veiling with appearance.

Devotee: You also spoke of the projecting power. What is meant by that?

Swami: Though you are formless and changeless, and though your nature is bliss (ananda), you are deluded into believing, feeling, and acting as if you are the body, which has form, which changes, and which is the seat of pain and grief. You refer to your self as the doer and enjoyer; you speak of I, you, they, this, that, etc., deluded into believing variety and multiplicity where there is only One. This illusion of projecting many on the one is called vikshepa-sakthi, or superimposition.

Devotee: What is that?

Swami: When you superimpose the object “silver” on mother-of-pearl, when you see not the stump but the human form, you have superimposed on it. Or when instead of the stretch of desert you see a lake, you have superimposed the unreal on the real. This is superimposition.

Devotee: Well, Baba. What is the real, and what is the unreal? Please explain that too.

Swami: The one and only, non-dual, being-awareness-bliss (satchidananda) absolute Brahman (Parabrahman) is the Real. Just as the name and the form of the snake are superimposed on a rope, this cosmos (jagath) – inclusive of everything from Brahman to a blade of grass, all creatures, all inert objects like the earth – is super-imposed on that Absolute, Supreme Real. The cosmos is the unreal (a-vastu) – that is, the superimposed thing.

Devotee: This superimposition of the name-form cosmos on the non-dual Real, how is it caused?

Swami: By illusion (maya).

Devotee: Illusion means …?

Swami: The power of ignorance (a-jnana-sakthi) of the above-said Universal Absolute Brahman (Parabrahman).

Devotee: Power of ignorance means …?

Swami: I told you, didn’t I? The incapacity to understand the Supreme Being (Brahman) even though you are fundamentally Brahman – that is ignorance (a-jnana).

Devotee: Well how does that ignorance produce all this cosmos (jagath)?

Swami: The power of ignorance doesn’t allow you to see the rope; instead it imposes the snake upon it; it makes you see the cosmos where there is only Brahman.

Devotee: Swami, when there is only the non-dual One (A-dwaitha), how did the creation of all these worlds happen?

Swami: You have come back again to where we started! Even if I tell you now, it is very hard to grasp. Still, since you have asked, I shall tell you. Listen. The power of ignorance exists in the latent form in the rope itself. That is to say, it is latent, unmanifested in the Brahman. This is also called ignorance (a-vidya). Its base is Brahman, which is awareness (chit) and bliss (ananda). Of the two powers that illusion (maya) has, veiling (avarana) and projection (vikshepa), the one veils the Brahman and the other makes it manifest as mind (manas). The mind creates all this panorama of name and form through the exuberance of impressions (vasanas).

Devotee: Wonderful, Swami. How wonderful is this nature (prakriti)! What is the distinction between the waking stage and the dream stage?

Swami: Both are of the nature of illusion. The impressions operate in both. The cosmos (jagath) is the stable illusion; the dream is the unstable illusion. This is the distinction, there is no other.

Devotee: Swami, how can it be said that this cosmos is unreal, when it is concrete and capable of being experienced in a variety of ways?

Swami: It is a delusion that hides the reality from the understanding, the cosmos is as much a superimposition on Brahman as a series of pictures on the wall.

Devotee: Ignorance (a-vidya) is said to be without beginning, isn’t it? Then why is it blamed so much?

Swami: The beginningless ignorance is ended when spiritual knowledge (vidya) dawns. This is only logical.

Darkness is destroyed by light. Every object has five parts: origin, nature, function, period, and result. But in the case of the Supreme Atma (Param-atma), these cannot be enunciated, though everything that has evolved as if from Him, has them. Only illusion (maya) has no explicable origin. It is its own proof. It is there in Brahman, with Brahman: it is without beginning. No cause can be given to explain how it manifested itself so luxuriously. Just as a bubble rises through the force of its own nature, up from the water, a force that takes the form of name-form emerges from the Limitless, the Full, the Supreme Atma. That is all. Only the ignorant will speak ill of ignorance.

Really, there is no well or ill.

Devotee: How can it be said illusion has no origin or cause (hethu)? Just as the potter’s handiwork is the cause for the clay to take the form of the pot, the will (sankalpa) of Iswara (a name for Siva) is essential for the force latent in Brahman to become patent.

Swami: In the final dissolution (maha-pralaya), Iswara will also become non-existent. Brahman alone will exist, right? Then, how can the will of Iswara be the origin? It can’t be. While considering this subject, you should not take Brahma, Vishnu, and Iswara as three separate entities. These three are forms shaped by the three qualities (gunas). All three are One Supreme Self (Param-atma). But, since it is difficult to understand the working of the world, it is explained and grasped as three: three forms engaged in three types of actions, bearing three names. At the time of creation, dissolution is absent. Both can co-exist only beyond time. People, who exist in time, action, and cause, can never hope to grasp it. When you transcend the three qualities, you can also attain that, but not until then. So, without spending time in such un-understandable problems, engage yourself in the things you urgently need, traversing the path that will lead you to the Goal.

Ignorance

by Swami Sivananda The mind is a creation of avidya! (ignorance) and it is the effect of avidya. The mind is filled with delusion this is why it tempts you and makes you go astray. If you can destroy the cause of the mind by getting knowledge of the supreme self, the mind is nowhere; it dwindles into an airy nothing.The whole experience of duality, made up of perceiver and perceived, is pure imagination. There is no ignorance apart from the mind. On the destruction of the mind, all is destroyed. The mind’s activity is the cause of all appearance. On account of illusion you think that the outside objects are separate from you and real.As long as there is mind there are all these distinctions big and small, high and low, superior and inferior, good and bad, etc., but the highest truth is that there is no relativity. If you can transcend the mind by constant and profound meditation on atman you will be able to attain a state beyond the pairs of opposites wherein lies supreme peace and highest knowledge.The first thought is the ‘Ithought’. As this ‘I-thought’ is the base of all other thoughts, egoism is the seed for the mind. The idea of ‘I’ brings in its train the idea of time, space and other potencies. With these environments, the name ‘jiva’ (soul) accrues to it. And contemporaneously with it there arise buddhi (intellect), memory and manas (mind) which is the seed of the tree of desire.You cannot realise God if you have the slightest trace of egoism, or attachment to name and form, or the least tinge of worldly desire in the mind. Try to minimise egoism little by little. Root it out by selfsacrifice, by karma yoga, by selfsurrender, or by vedantic selfenquiry. Whenever egoism asserts itself, raise the question within yourself: “What is the source of this little ‘I”? Again and again ask this question and, as you remove layer after layer, the onion dwindles to nothing. Analyse the little ‘I’ and it becomes a nonentity.The ego is the Lord for whose entertainment the dance is performed and the objects of the senses are his companions. The intellect is the dancing girl and the senses are the persons who play on the instruments which accompany the dance. The saksi (witnessing soul) is the lamp which illumines the scene. Just as the lamp, without moving from its place, furnishes light to all parts so too, the saksi from its unchangeable position illumines everything situated inside or outside.

Avidya And Ahankara

by Swami Sivananda

Avidya

The mind itself is a creation of Avidya (ignorance). It is a Karya (effect) of Avidya. It is filled with delusion. That is the reason why it deceives and tempts you. It makes you go astray. If you can destroy the cause of the mind, Ajnana, by getting Jnana (knowledge of the Supreme Self), mind is nowhere. It dwindles into an airy nothing. Manonasa (annihilation of mind) takes place when Jnana dawns.

Avidya works through Upadhis (attributes, limiting adjuncts). All the special apparatus required by Avidya constitute the Upadhis of the soul. Mind is an Upadhi; Buddhi is an Upadhi and Ahankara also is an Upadhi.

The sea of Avidya (ignorance) is in the mind of man. The explanation of the empirical concept must be sought in the nature of our cognitive faculty. Sri Sankara explains Avidya in this way. It is Naisargika; it is innate in our mental faculty. It is Mithyajnananimitta, based on wrong knowledge; and, knowledge is a function of the mind. It is Nityapratyayarupa; it consists in the form of a wrong conception. “All Jivas-human entities-which are really non-existent, are (with all concomitant appearance of birth, death, etc.) mere results of the objectivising tendency of the mind and nothing else.”

The whole experience of duality, made up of perceiver and perceived, is pure imagination. There is no Avidya apart from the mind. On destruction of the mind, all is destroyed. The activity of the mind is the cause of all appearance. On account of Avidya or Bhranti (illusion) in the mind, you see the objects, trees, etc., outside and feel as if they are separate from you and real.

So long as there is mind, there are all these distinctions of big and small, high and low, superior and inferior, good and bad, etc. The highest Truth is that in which there is no relativity. If you can transcend the mind by constant and profound meditation on Atman, you will be able to attain the Nirdvandva state (a state beyond the pairs of opposites) wherein lies the supreme peace and highest knowledge.

There is no Avidya outside the mind. The mind itself is Avidya. Imaginations and Sankalpas are products of Avidya. Ignorance is imbedded in the mind. The mind needs thorough cleansing with Japa, Pranayama, Satsanga, Vichara and Nididhyasana, just as a rusty copper plate needs cleansing with earth, ash, tamarind, powder, etc.

Ahankara-how It Develops

Atman in conjunction with the Buddhi is Ahankara. The basis of Ahankara is Buddhi. As the Buddhi (Bheda Buddhi) is the cause for this differentiation (this little “I”), Buddhi is the cause or seed for Ahankara. Ahamta and Mamata (‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness) are Jivasrishti. It is Jivasrishti that binds a man to the world. Isvarasrishti (God’s creation) helps man in his God-realisation.

The seed of mind is Ahankara. Ahankara is development through the thoughts of the mind. As the first thought is the ‘I’ thought and as this ‘I’ thought is at the base of all other thoughts, Ahankara is the seed for the mind. This idea of ‘I’ will bring in its train, the idea of time, space and other potencies. With these environments, the name Jiva accrues to it. Contemporaneously with it, there arise Buddhi, memory, Manas which is the seed of the tree of Sankalpa.

When you are a boy, the Ahankara is not very potent. It is like a shadow in a glass. It gets developed and firm-rooted during your adolescence after you marry and entangle yourself in the achievement of various worldly desires. You are fearless in your boyhood. The moment this little ‘I’ becomes stronger in your, side by side, various sorts of fears, various sorts of desires, a host of delusions take firm hold of you. The world appears to you more real, too.

The Curse Of Egoism

Ahankara is, after all, nothing. But, tremendous is its influence! Maya means Ahankara. Mind is another name for Ahankara. World means Ahankara. The sprout of Ahankara ramifies here and there with its long branches of ‘mine’ and ‘thine’. It is inveterate. Ahankara wants to live in flesh (Abhinivesa or clinging to life), to eat flesh and to embrace flesh. This is pure Ajnana (ignorance) only. Look at Maya’s deception and wholesale swindling! Beware! Awake! Get Jnana.

Just as the cloud screens the sun, so also this cloud of Ahankara screens the ‘Jnana Surya’, the Infinite Sun of Knowledge, Brahman. You cannot realise God, if you have the least tinge of egoism, if you have the slightest attachment to name and form, if you have the least tinge of Vasana or if you have the least trace of worldly desire in the mind.

How To Eradicate Ahankara

The deep roots of Ahankara should be burnt by the fire of knowledge (Jnanagni). Then you will quite easily get the wealth of Moksha. All tribulations, sorrows, miseries and afflictions will terminate now. Control of the Indriyas and Pranayama help to develop the Buddhi (Vikasa of Buddhi).

You cannot, all at once, eradicate Ahankara altogether. You can easily give up wife, children, money, anger. But it is extremely difficult to give up Ahankara. Try to minimise it little by little. Remove one anna of Ahankara within three months. Within four years, you will be able to root it out completely. You will have to remove it either by self-sacrifice through Karma Yoga-or self-surrender through Bhakti-or self-denial through Vedantic Atma-Vichara.

Through the Sankalpas of Manas, Ahankara is generated. If the modification of the mind which leans to sensual pleasures is destroyed, the Atman, divested of its Ahankara, becomes the unnameable Brahmic Reality.

Ahankara is like a thread. It connects or links all the Indriyas on itself. When the thread is broken, all the pearls fall down. Even so, when the thread of Ahankara is broken by ‘Aham Brahma Asmi’ Bhavana or Sakshi Bhava or self-surrender method by taking the Nimitta Bhava (instrument-in-the-hands-of-the-Lord attitude), all the Indriyas will be broken down or destroyed. The connection with Indriyas will be severed.

Even if you identify yourself with a subtle body inside, it will help you in your Self-realisation. It is only the identification with the fleshy physical body that brings all sorts of troubles through gross Ahankara and ‘mineness’. The physical ‘I’ is a very great menace.

Whenever Ahankara asserts itself, raise a question within thyself, “What is the source of this little ‘I’?” Again and again, moot this question and enquire. When you remove layer after layer, the onion dwindles to nothing. When you analyse the little ‘I’, it becomes a non-entity; it will gradually vanish. It will dwindle into an airy nothing. Body is not ‘I’. ‘I’ remains even after the leg is amputated. Give up Jivasrishti.

Within the time taken to pluck a flower, within the twinkling of an eye, this Ahankara can be easily eradicated by right Sadhana or Brahma-Bhava.

Sattvic Ahankara

When you assert ‘Aham Brahma Asmi’ (I am Brahman), it is Sattvic Ahankara. It is Moksha Ahankara. It will not bind you in any way. It will help you realise Brahman. The fire in a picture will not burn anything. A light in the presence of midday sun will not shine and shed its light. Even so, the Ahankara of a Sattvic person cannot do any harm to any person.