Knowledge and Ignorance

Knowledge (vidyā) and ignorance (Avidyā) are discussed in the Śāntiparva of the Mahābhārata It says that the nature which is subject to creation and destruction is called Avidyā. While Puruṣa (soul) who is freed from attributes of creation and dissolution and who is above the twenty four topics or principles is called Vidyā.^[1]

The soul acquires the knowledge of the supreme soul through its discriminative powers and contemplates.

“I am like the supreme soul; I have become one with it. There is a similarity between both of us. This supreme soul is pure and I, too, am pure like him.”

Thus forsaking its mortal characteristic it obtains the pure immortal self. The twenty fifth, when he thus succeeds in understanding the supreme becomes able to cast off the destructible and at one with the indestructible and which is the essence of all that is auspicious.^[2]

The Mahābhārata further explains—

“When the being regularly contemplates on the supreme self, he isolates him and attains the supreme soul.”^[3]

The Śāntiparva tells that the unmanifest nature, which is characterised by the phenomena of creation and dissolution is Avidyā. The ātman is kūṭastha or gūḍhātma, avyaktātparato, indriyātīta etc. Once this screen of (Avidyā) Māyā is brought to a higher position there raises the knowledge of supreme Reality, and the being is from the cycle of existence released and he becomes one with the supreme soul.

The Śāntiparva states that in all beings ātman is hidden. It is thus that the soul, covered with various forms, goes from form to form unseen and unnoticed by others. Persons endued with true knowledge witness the soul by their keen and subtle intelligence. Living on restricted diet and with heart purged of all sins, devoting him to meditation, a wise man succeeds every night, before sleep and after sleep, in seeing soul by the help of his soul. Discarding their association with both the favourable and unfavourable actions thereafter, they experience the eternal Bliss within their ātman.^[4]

The ultimate goal in the Vedānta Philosophy is liberation. According to the Mahābhārata the people who believe in the ceremonial acts and sacrificial rites as has been directed in the Vedas; are delighted after accepting the merits. Highly wise men are observed by abstention from acts. Whose conduct therefore is praiseworthy? The intelligence which advocates abstention from acts is that by which one attains Liberation. Endued with body, a person, through folly and endued with anger and lust and all the tendencies born of darkness and ignorance, cherishes attachment for all earthly objects. One who wishes to be released from the ties should make efforts good release. On the other hand one should create by his acts a path for attaining liberation. On account of sin, one’s thirst is never satisfied. Once the sins are destroyed he attains release. The Mahābhārata confirms that man can gain emancipation with the help of benevolence, forgiveness, tranquillity, mercy, truthfulness and open mindedness, abstention from injury, absence of pride, modesty, renunciation and abstention from work.^[5] The invisible supreme self who can observe a person who dwells in all the beings gains the state of the Brahman and unending existence after having left this world.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

avidyāmāhuravyaktaṃ sargapralayadharmi vai |
sargapralayanirmuktāṃ vidyāṃ vai pañcaviṃśakaḥ || Śāntiparva , 307-2.

[2]:

ibid., 307-27, 28, 40.

[3]:

yadānupaśyate'tyantamahanyahani kāśyapa |
tadā sa kevalībhūtaḥ ṣaḍviṃśamanupaśyati || Śāntiparva , 318.55.

[4]:

Mahābhārata Śāntiparva , 187, 28-30.

[5]:

Śāntiparva , 271-39,40.