AVIDYA
Verse
2.4 of the yoga sutras defines avidya as -
Avidya Kshetram
Uttaresham Prasupta Tanu Vicchinna Udaranam
Translation:- The
root forgetting or ignorance of the nature of things (avidya) is the breeding
ground for the other of the five colorings (kleshas), and each of these is in
one of four states:
1) dormant or inactive,
2) attenuated or weakened,
3) interrupted or separated from temporarily, or
4) active and producing thoughts or actions to varying degrees.
While
we will deal with these 4 stages later on, we will focus on the earlier part of
the translation of the sutra which says “The root forgetting or ignorance
of the nature of things (avidya) is the breeding ground for the other of the
five colorings (kleshas)”.
Meaning of ignorance: Avidya is
usually translated as ignorance. Notice that the word contains the root
of ignore, which is an ability that is not necessarily negative. The
ability to ignore allows the ability to focus. Imagine that
you are in a busy restaurant, and are having a conversation with your friend.
To listen to your friend means both focusing on listening, while also ignoring the
other conversations going on around you.
However, in the path of
Self-realization, we want to see past the veil of ignorance, to no
longer ignore and to see clearly but some thing beyond mere ignoring.
Avidya (ignorance) is
somewhat like making a mistake, in which one thing is confused for another.
Four major forms of this are:
Seeing the temporary
as eternal: For example, thinking that the earth and moon are
permanent, or behaving as if our possessions are permanently ours, forgetting
that all of them will go, and that our so-called ownership is only relative.
Mistaking the impure
for the pure: For example, believing that our thoughts, emotions,
opinions, or motives in relation to ourselves, some other person, or situation
are purely good, healthy, and spiritual, when they are actually a mixture of
tendencies or inclinations and not pure as such.
Confusing the painful
to be pleasureful: For example, in our social, familial,
and cultural settings there are many actions that seem pleasure filled in the
moment, only later to be found as painful in retrospect.
Thinking the not-self
to be the self: For example, we may think of our country, name, body,
profession, or deep predispositions to be "who I am," confusing these
with who I really am at the deepest level, the level of our eternal Self.
Out of the above 4, in vedantha or in
yoga, the main or the mother avidya which gives birth to the other 4
avidya is the last one- Thinking the not-self to be the self.
While almost the entire posts on the
theme “Purpose of Human Birth” deals with the above factor, to refresh and to
recap, let us go back to our learning in the posts on “Purpose of Human Birth”.
- Man is born Divine, created by God, as blemish less, as perfect, as pure as God Himself.
- If Man had truly cognized the above fact the moment he was born, there would have certainly been no need for him to be born again. He would have merged with God in his first ever birth, for sure.
- Man, after he is born, loses the vidya (wisdom) that he is Divine and gets afflicted with avidya (ignorance) of his Divine nature.
This spiritual ignorance/ forgetfulness of one's Divinity is the subtlest ego, which cannot be easily perceived or known by a human.
Thus, as correctly pointed out
above, this primal ignorance, avidya, is the breeding point for all other 4
kleshas which we will be dealing in the upcoming posts.
Avidya is depicted in the diagram below, the waves represent avidya. The substratum level is the reality or Knowledge of truth, Pure Consciousness.
Waves,
emerging from the substratum ocean, existing for a while and dissolving back
into the ocean, imagine for a while they they have a separate identity other
than the ocean.
Similarly, Man, emerging from God Divine, existing for a while only to retrace to God, starts to think that he has a separate existence other than God/Atman/Pure Consciousness. THIS IS AVIDYA.
This ignorance of one's nature of existence as Divine, is the first and the subtlest EGO/coloring, which is the mother of all other subsequent ego/coloring/ kleshas.
In the spiritual path, removing all the negative qualities, rising beyond all attachments and hatred, beyond all fear, beyond all human limitations is possible but the last step, the last thing to be transcended is the AVIDYA or the Ignorance of the divinity that one is and thinking the NON-SELF to be SELF, is the most difficult step.
This is most difficult because, while other things like hatred/ attachment/anger/jealousy etc are easily known, this Spiritual Ignorance is the subtlest and therefore, it cannot be perceived with normal state of mind.
Only in the depth of meditation, when all the disturbance of mind is silenced, this ignorance can be visible to the meditator as easily as he can comprehend other grosser Ego like hatred and attachment.
Does the meditator actually comprehend this ignorance in his meditation?? NO.
He actually experiences the state which is after transcending this primal ignorance AVIDYA in the seat of his meditation.
The ultimate experience he gets after transcending the subtlest ignorance - Avidya is something which cannot be described through words. While all experience with avidya is through his mind, the experience upon rising above avidya is not with mind.
By experience, our normal understanding is experience of objects in the world and hence we call it as objective experience.
The experience after the meditator rises above avidya is beyond all objects of the world and hence, we call it as subjective experience or inward experience where there is no experience as such but he just exists as his true self, exactly as he was created by God, as God.
This experience is the main motivating factor for him to be conscious not to fall in the trap of this ignorance after he comes out of the meditation.
Thus "being conscious" helps him to clearly identify pure from impure, Self from Non-Self, pleasure from Pain and above all, The only eternal truth, the Pure Consciousness - Chit, from everything else which is not eternal.
We will move on to the next klesha , the 2nd Ego, Asmita, in the next post.
Love.
