Guest guest Posted July 13, 2001 Report Share Posted July 13, 2001 namaste. While we are on the topic of ignorance, a few more thoughts (mainly paraphrasing from swami Satchidanandendra saraswati). 1. Everyone superimposes every kind of activity, which really belongs to name and form, on to the SELF, and superimposes the property of light, which belongs to the SELF alone onto name and form. Hence they get confused by statements such as "This is my SELF", "I am gummuluru murthy", "I act", "I do things", "It goes", "It comes", etc. 2. In the rope-snake superimposition, the rope is not affected in any way by the superimposition of the snake. We erroneously attribute the properties of the snake onto the rope without the rope being affected in any way. Similarly, the superimposition of name and form onto the SELF in no way affects the SELF. The SELF is and will always be in its pure untainted pristine condition. The superimposed impurities do not affect the SELF. 3. Similarly, the disease of delusion and ignorance which we think we are afflicted with is really not there in that Absolute and does not really affect the SELF. 4. The notion of knowledge and ignorance pertain to the realm of ignorance only. 5. There are three kinds of ignorance: absence of knowledge, doubt regarding the Truth, and wrong knowledge. While all the three obscure the true nature of reality, it is wrong knowledge which is most damaging and steers our view of the jagat into wrong direction. It seems in a way that these three kinds of ignorance - absence of knowledge, doubt regarding the Truth and wrong knowledge - roughly correspond sequentially to the jIvA's three states of deep-sleep, dream and wake-up states. While I can see the correlation for deep-sleep and wake-up states, I do not fully see for the dream-state. Any help? Regards Gummuluru Murthy - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 13, 2001 Report Share Posted July 13, 2001 Namaste Gummuluruji: Your explanation confirms that we are all quite knowledgeable about ignorance! The reason that we do not fully see dream-state is because we are still not out of the dream state. This is a classical paradox and only Brahman can explain fully all the three states. We can speculate and most of the time we just expose our ignorance during our speculations. Your statement that "The notion of knowledge and ignorance pertain to the realm of ignorance only" is an excellent one for contemplation. The same statment can also be restated as "The desire to remove our ignorance is caused only by ignorance!" Such desires will not certainly liberate us from life of ignorance to the light of Bliss. I have another comment regarding snake-rope superimposition. In examples such as snake-rope or ghost-post such superimpositions without affecting the rope or illusionary snake or post or the illusionary ghost. But in actual life when we errorneously superimpose a thief on to an innocent person, both get affected. In this case our ignorance can inject potentially irrecovable damages. The bottom line message of Vedanta is: "The highest goal of human life is God (SELF) Realization." Without realization, we are bound to believe that 'we are ignorant' and we likely to superimpose the False with the Truth! warmest regards, Ram Chandran advaitin, Gummuluru Murthy <gmurthy@m...> wrote: > > namaste. > > While we are on the topic of ignorance, a few more thoughts > (mainly paraphrasing from swami Satchidanandendra saraswati). > ............... > I do not fully see for the dream-state. Any help? > Regards > Gummuluru Murthy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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