ATMA BODHA 3

 

ATMA   BODHA 3                      

Avirodhitaya Karma  Na-vidyam Vinivartayet

Vidya- Avidyam  Nihantyeva Tejas--Timirasanghavat

Ignorance cannot be destroyed by Action  because  it is not in conflict with ignorance. Knowledge alone destroys ignorance as light destroys deep or thick darkness.

Why do austerities like Tapas, a life without sin,  Santam or peacefulness,  control over the senses,  and  a sincere desire for liberation provide no emancipation as KNOWLEDGE  does?  By KNOWLEDGE Sankara means KNOWLEDGE of the SELF only. According to the Upanishads , KNOWLEDGE means the KNOWLEDGE of the SELF or the BRAHMAN. By attaining Knowledge one rediscovers  the Self or Atma  in us embedded in the innermost recess of our heart. The Vedas, Upanishads and scriptures  describe the Atman as ever present. The Isavasya Upanishad proclaims: “He pervades all things: he is radiant, incorporeal, invulnerable, and sinewless; He is pure and un touched by evil; He is the seer, wise, all pervading and self existent----“ ( chapter 1 ---8)When such is the case,  where is the need for striving for it which is ever present in us.  In short, all our actions, austerities, tapas and other rituals do not lead us directly to the KNOWLEDGE of the SELF. The purpose and effect of all austerities is to clean the inner equipment of perception and to see the true and real nature of our own SELF.

Sankara introduces a beautiful simile to illustrate the point. A room is terribly dark and nothing is visible. Is it possible to sweep away the darkness in baskets? It is a vain effort to do so. No physical effort will dispel the pitch darkness in the room. The easiest and the best method would be to light a match or a candle and enter the room. As soon as it is done, all the darkness in the room is dissolved and the room is illuminated. Our ignorance is the darkness in the room.  The candle or the match is the light that dispels the deep darkness inside the room and reveals the truth which is the Knowledge of the SELF. The SELF is effulgent forever and we have to brush aside the enveloping ignorance to witness the  glow and glory of the Self.

Vidya is the KNOWLEDGE of the SELF. AVidya is darkness or ignorance in Vedantic  parlance.  Man is enveloped in ignorance or Avidya and is unable to think of the Self.  He thinks that he is the Body and attaches all importance to its activities. He has no time to contemplate on the SELF within his own body. Attachment to mundane things like wife, children, wealth, kith and kin hang heavily on him and he is doomed and lost forever. Until this Avidya is brushed off there is no liberation or emancipation for him. The example of the  rope and snake reveals the nature of man. he is thirsty and wants to quench his thirst. There is a well and a bucket and rope nearby. But it is pitch dark. He moves forward cautiously, steps upon the rope but suddenly turns back in horror mistaking it for a snake. On switching on the torch, he is relieved to know that it is, after all, a rope!  Darkness is ignorance. Light is Knowledge. Where there is illumination or KNOWLEDGE there is no AVIDYA or Ignorance.

In Hinduism,  Avidya stands for confusing the  mundane reality to be the only reality and as permanent though it is ever changing. According to Hinduism there is a spiritual reality consisting of Atman—Brahman, one that is the true, eternal, imperishable reality beyond time.  Avidya is the absence of Knowledge, essentially  an ignorance of who we are. It is often referred  to  as the root cause of human suffering.  Avidya is also called primal ignorance. It takes the non eternal to be eternal, the impure to be pure, the pain producing to be pleasure producing and the non –Atman to be the Atman! Avidya is also called Maya in philosophy. It is the root cause of delusion compelling people to believe right as wrong and wrong as right. It is absolutely impossible to overcome Maya as Krishna Himself says “ mama Maya duratyaya.”