The Existence And Non Existence Of Ignorance!

Vedanta

oi-Priya Devi

By Priya Devi

Friday, June 18, 2010, 13:43

There is Brahman of the nature of Existence-Consciousness, Bliss and it is I myself. To say 'I do not know myself' is ignorance. There must be a light of Consciousness because of which this statement is both recognized and expressed. This also shows that the light must be apart from, and untouched by, these thoughts of ignorance, this light is that of Atman, the Pure Consciousness, which shines ever as the illuminator of the thoughts of ignorance.

Ignorance cannot touch it because they are of opposite natures. So ignorance cannot exist in Atman, just as in the sun the clouds do not exist. The clouds that veil the sun are seen because of the light of the sun; the clouds can neither touch nor actually cover the sun.

To say that ignorance is real because no one has imagined it, is illogical. On the other hand since it is not established who has imagined it, the ignorance must be non-existing; Brahman cannot imagine, and anything other than Brahman which is of the nature of existence, cannot imagine, cannot even exist. The world as well as 'the experience of the world is "false", in the sense that they are only apparent.

If Atman is of the nature of Knowledge how can there be the feeling of ignorance? It is said that even though the sun is all light, for the owls there is darkness all around all through the day.

Even though ignorance is not possible, still it appears to exist. We cannot say it is unreal fo an unreal, thing should not be seen or experienced;but ignorance is seen and experienced directly. We have to infer that there is ignorance; it becomes a direct experience of the witness.

But we also cannot say that it is real because a real thing cannot be negated, whereas ignorance gets negated. Hence it is considered as something "in explicable" which cannot be pointed out positively as existing or negatively as non-existing.

It is very interesting to note that a life of ignorance depends on lack of enquiry. Bhagwan Sri Ramana Maharshi says in Sat-Darshanam, 'Born of forms, existing in forms, living on forms, ever changing its forms, itself formless, running away when enquired into, such is the ego-ghost'. Note that ego, ignorance, maya, mind are all synonyms.

Even in the world a person who is doing some 'fishy' business is afraid of only one thing and that is enquiry. Without enquiry his business goes on unhindered.

A beautiful example is given to reveal that ignorance is inexplicable. Sometimes we see a thick mist stagnant in space. If we try to grab it nothing comes in our hand. It is not a wall, we can walk through it, but it obstructs our vision and hinders our progress. The mist continues till the bright sunlight emerges and evaporates it. Similarly in the Space- of-Consciousness there is this inexplicable ignorance which gives us all sorts of troubles and endless sorrows. It can be dispelled only by the sun of knowledge born of proper enquiry.

What-is proper enquiry? Accepting its existence, if we ask questions about it, such as "When did it begin? How it deludes us?" etc., it will not solve our problem. It is not creative enquiry. Many scholars break their heads to gain knowledge about ignorance ! Instead we should question the very existence of ignorance. This type of enquiry alone gives rise to the knowledge which dispels ignorance.

To be continued