Swami Sivananda Vani

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IGNORANCE

 

The mind is a creation of avidya! (ignorance) and it is the effect of

avidya. The mind is filled with delusion ¬ this is why it tempts you

and makes you go astray. If you can destroy the cause of the mind by

getting knowledge of the supreme self, the mind is nowhere; it

dwindles into an airy nothing.

 

The whole experience of duality, made up of perceiver and perceived,

is pure imagination. There is no ignorance apart from the mind. On

the destruction of the mind, all is destroyed. The mind's activity is

the cause of all appearance. On account of illusion you think that

the outside objects are separate from you and real.

 

As long as there is mind there are all these distinctions ¬ big and

small, high and low, superior and inferior, good and bad, etc., ¬ but

the highest truth is that there is no relativity. If you can

transcend the mind by constant and profound meditation on atman you

will be able to attain a state beyond the pairs of opposites wherein

lies supreme peace and highest knowledge.

 

The first thought is the 'I¬thought'. As this 'I-thought' is the base

of all other thoughts, egoism is the seed for the mind. The idea

of 'I' brings in its train the idea of time, space and other

potencies. With these environments, the name 'jiva' (soul) accrues to

it. And contemporaneously with it there arise buddhi (intellect),

memory and manas (mind) which is the seed of the tree of desire.

You cannot realise God if you have the slightest trace of egoism, or

attachment to name and form, or the least tinge of worldly desire in

the mind. Try to minimise egoism little by little. Root it out by

self¬sacrifice, by karma yoga, by self¬surrender, or by vedantic

self¬enquiry. Whenever egoism asserts itself, raise the question

within yourself: " What is the source of this little 'I' " ? Again and

again ask this question and, as you remove layer after layer, the

onion dwindles to nothing. Analyse the little 'I' and it becomes a

non¬entity.

 

The ego is the Lord for whose entertainment the dance is performed

and the objects of the senses are his companions. The intellect is

the dancing girl and the senses are the persons who play on the

instruments which accompany the dance. The saksi (witnessing soul) is

the lamp which illumines the scene. Just as the lamp, without moving

from its place, furnishes light to all parts ¬ so too, the saksi from

its unchangeable position illumines everything situated inside or

outside.