Sūtra 2.4 [Avidyā—ignorance]

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of sūtra 2.4 [kleśas (a)— avidyā]:

अविद्या क्षेत्रमुत्तरेषां प्रसुप्ततनुविच्छिन्नोदाराणाम् ॥ २.४ ॥

avidyā kṣetramuttareṣāṃ prasuptatanuvicchinnodārāṇām || 2.4 ||

(4) Avidyā is the breeding ground for the others following it whether they may be dormant, attenuated, interrupted or active.

Ancient and Modern interpretation:

The main cause of various miserable experiences is the five kleśas. Patañjali has described these five kleśas in detail in further aphorisms.

According to Vyāsabhāṣya,^[1] avidyā is the breeding ground for the others following it; whether it may be dormant, attenuated, interrupted or active. The other four forms of kleśa are variations of avidyā.They have four states viz.dormant, attenuated, interrupted and active. A dormant affliction is in form of germs and it awakens with an appropriate stimulus. Tanu or attenuated kleśa is one which is thinned by kriyāyoga. Vicchinna or interrupted kleśa is that which supressed by other kleśas is.Udara means active kleśas.

In small child, all kleśas are in dormant /seed form.But as the child grows up, they start manifesting in him.but still it is in tanu form.They become more prominent as chile becomes adult. Patañjali has given kriyāyogasādhanā for reducing these kleśa, at the start of this chapter.

Dormant is like a parched seed as both are unnoticeable. But in Yogīs who have burnt kleśas the affictions are like fifth state where seeds of kleśa exist, but they cannot germinate.So kleśas burnt in the fire of knowledge cannot affect the ātman.Such yogī is in jīvanmukta state.This is the last life of yogī after Samprajñāta-Samādhi.He clears all residual karmas and while doing so he overflows with dharma.So, this is called dharmamegha Samādhi.^[2]

Osho explains this as, ‘whether they be in the states of dormancy,attenuations,alteration or expansion,it is through lack of awareness that the other causes of misery are able to operate.’ One needs perfect awareness to know the seed form,which is most difficult because it has not sprouted.

Taimni says, kleśa philosophy is the foundation of Pātañjalayoga.He has given how our sages have thought above time and space and gone to the deep-rooted kleśas. Taimni also gives avidyā as the root cause of all four kleśas and the four states are given in which kleśas exist.The main idea is ātmā in pure form is conscious about its real nature.But due to involution in matter deprives it of this self knowledge in increasing degree and the privation of this knowledge is avidyā.

Īśāvāsyopaniṣad says,^[3]

‘Those who worship avidyā (ignorance)enter into darkness and those who worship vidyā (knowledge)enter into still darkness.’

‘He who knows both vidya and avidyā together, crosses death through avidyā and attains eternal life through vidyā.’

Swāmī-Śivānanda says on this,^[4]

Avidyā here means ‘karmas’ or vedic rites,such as agnihotra etc. that are performed with expectation of fruits.Those who perform such karmas enter into blinding darkness.They obtain the abode of the ancestors or pitṛloka, and are hurled back down mṛtyuloka,when the fruits of their karmas are exhausted. Vidyā here means ‘spritual light’ that is knowledge of the devas,by which devaloka is attained.When fruits of the worship of vidyā are exhausted,those sādhakas who have abandoned karmas and seek the knowledge of deities also come back to this samsāra,and fall under still greater darkness. Avidyā and vidyā bear different fruits.

With avidyā, wordly knowledge and karma, one develops capacities of mind, intellect and senses and is able to live life, develops ego and follows path of action—pravṛttimārga. Vidyā and dhyāna leads one to nivṛttimārga.But one needs to get over avidyā (death), to attain immortality or the real knowledge of self-consciousness.

Avidyā slowly disappears by sādhanā of jñānayoga and bhaktiyoga. It is stepping stone for vidyā.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Araṇya, op.cit,p.117,118

[2]:

P.Y.S., IV.29

[3]:

Satyānanda Swāmī, Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad,Yoga Publications Trust, Bihar, 2013 (1973), p.62-70

[4]:

Ibid.,p.64