Sūtra 2.5

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Sūtra 2.5:

अनित्याशुचिदुःखानात्मसु नित्यशुचिसुखात्मख्यातिरविद्या ॥ २.५ ॥

anityāśuciduḥkhānātmasu nityaśucisukhātmakhyātiravidyā || 2.5 ||

5. Ignorance is the assumption of that which is noneternal, impure, painful and non-soul, to be eternal, pure, joyous and soul.

The Rajamartanda commentary by King Bhoja:

[English translation of the 11th century commentary by Bhoja called the Rājamārtaṇḍa]

[Sanskrit text for commentary available]

The assumption of a thing being what it is not, is “ignorance” (avidyā). That this is its general definition follows from its distinctions as pointed out (in the aphorism). Thus the assumption of eternity in the non-eternal water jar and the like is ignorance. In the same way, the assumption of purity in impure objects, like the body and so forth, that of joy in pain, and that of the soul in the body (which is not soul, are results of ignorance). By these is explained the mistake of con* founding vice with virtue and the useless with the useful.

[The Pātañjala Bhāṣya argues that although the word avidyā is formed of the privative particle a with vidyā “knowledge,” it does not mean simple absence of knowledge, but a conception distinct and the opposite of it, and illustrates it by the examples of amitra and agoṣpada, the former of which, though formed of a (absence) and mitra “a friend,” does not mean the absence of a friend, but an enemy, and the latter, formed of a and goṣpada “the footprint of a cow,” does not mean the absence of the footprint of a cow, but a country.—

Tasyās cāmitrāgoṣpada-vadavastu sa tattvam vijñeyam, yathā nāmitro mitrābhāvo na mitramātram, kintu tadvirudhaḥ sapatnaḥ, yathā vāgoṣpadam na goṣpadābhāvo na goṣpadamātram, kintu deśa eva, tābhyāmanyat vastvantaram, enamavidyā na pramāṇam na pramāṇābhāvaḥ, kintu vidyāviparitam jñānāntaramavidyeti.]

With a view to explain egoism, he says: