Ignorance Is Not the Absence of Knowledge

Have you seen any toddler being afraid of any disease or calamity? No.
Because he is completely ignorant of those subjects.

I have seen many poor and illiterate people in my rural area who don’t react when I tell them about their major illnesses. They are completely ignorant about that disease, its severity and its prognosis. This is how ignorance is bliss.

But those who have a little bit of knowledge about the diseases, are always under stress. Incomplete knowledge regarding diseases makes them more anxious and fearful.

If you don’t know the recipe for a pickle, you will not try to prepare it. But if you know its recipe completely,  you will prepare it confidently. What if you know the recipe partially? You will definitely spoil it for sure…

Thus partial or incomplete knowledge creates confusion/doubts/misinterpretation. All the drama going on in our life is because of this incomplete knowledge.

If you know the snake and rope analogy, you will notice that:

• If there is complete darkness; you cannot see the rope in the courtyard hence no scope for assuming the snake is over it.
• If there is a bright light, you will see the rope as a rope, and no scope for misapprehension as a snake.
• But in twilight, that is when there is neither sufficient light nor complete darkness, confusion arises. Then the rope is mistaken for a snake and fear arises.

Thus complete ignorance or complete darkness cannot create misapprehension, confusion, doubts, fear etc.

When you learn the scriptures from an authentic source then only your ideas get cleared and you become doubt free. Incomplete knowledge creates confusion and doubts because of misinterpretation.  This confusion and doubts resist one to have faith in the scriptures.

Now, the ignorance of worldly things may be complete or partial. Here we can say that one is ignorant about the language Tamil… the absence of knowledge of Tamil is ignorance of Tamil. But the very word ‘ignorance’ in Vedanta has totally different meaning. Ignorance is the lack of complete knowledge. It is not the absence of knowledge — it is incomplete knowledge.

The root cause of all the suffering is ignorance — Ignorance of the self; which indirectly means partial knowledge of the self. How do you understand this concept — Ignorance is knowing the self partially.

You will agree that everyone is aware of one’s own presence. No one has doubt about one’s own presence.  We express it as I am.  May he or she be a lunatic, expression —I am is by default.  Even in the state of confusion, one utters — Where am I? that is sure about their presence but confused about the place…

Thus everyone has the knowledge that he or she is( Knowledge about one’s own presence.) Then what is lacking?

Knowledge of that Issness… Eternal presence… Sat.
Knowledge of that Awareness… Pure Consciousness… Chit
Knowledge of that Absolute Bliss… Anandam.

In worldly parlance, one can have complete knowledge such as I am a doctor, I am a mother, etc. We are not discussing this knowledge of worldly things. We are trying to understand the real meaning of ‘ignorance’ through these common expressions.

‘I am.’… denotes the Sat Chit Anandam aspect. And ‘…a doctor…a mother, etc’  are just the upadhis, conditionings of name and form to the ‘isness/i am’. This is the way the Infinite is reduced to the finite… The Brahman is conditioned as a Jiva.

I hope you have understood the real meaning of ignorance as per vedanta texts. It is the incomplete knowledge of self-nature. Because of this ignorance only, jivas are superimposing the characteristics of body, mind, and intellect ( upadhis)  upon the self (the Atman). Upadhi of ‘a doctor’ is superimposed upon ‘the Self’ and thus expressing as — I am a doctor. This is how the jiva lives with the doer ship and gets affected by the dualities arising because of respective upadhis.

One beautiful example can help you understand your nature as Pure consciousness and how you witness all the happenings and non-happenings in your life. ‘I know the law of karma.’ The meaning of this sentence is — you (your intellect/ego) know the law of karma.

Now watch this sentence — ‘I know that I know the law of karma.’ The meaning of this sentence is — you as the witnessing Consciousness know that you (ego) know the law of karma.

You can try this technique using different objects, things, and beings; you will experience yourself as the witness consciousness. For example, ‘I don’t know the Tamil language.’ means, You as an ego don’t know the Tamil language. ‘I know that I don’t know the Tamil language.’ You as the witness consciousness/ Chit know that you(ego) don’t know the Tamil language.

Thus why are we called ignorant jivas? Because we are in incomplete knowledge of our True nature. We know we are but don’t know ‘who we are.’

The Realised masters are those who have experienced the Self. They don’t have traces of ignorance. That’s why they live abiding by the true nature of Sat Chit Ananda.
ब्रह्मविद् ब्रह्मैव भवति। One who knows/ experienced the Brahman is the Brahman… and rest all are living in misery as the jivas because of the ignorance/the incomplete knowledge of the Self.

Hari Om!