Ignorance (Avidyā)
The root illness isn't sin but a deep forgetting of who you are.
Avidyā is 'ignorance' — but not a mere lack of information. It names a deep, beginningless misperception that makes us take the unreal for real and forget our true nature, and so keeps us bound to the round of rebirth. Because the disease is ignorance, the cure is knowledge: when avidyā is removed, bondage is seen to have been unreal all along. In Yoga it is the first and root of the 'afflictions.'
How it traveled
- Īśā UpaniṣadKuru-Pañcāla region · -600explains
- Kaṭha UpaniṣadKuru-Pañcāla region · -500explains
- UpadeśasāhasrīKālaḍi (Kaladi) · 710explains
- Aṣṭāvakra-gītāKāśī (Varanasi) · 1450explains
Key passages(20)
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
'All who worship what is not knowledge (avidya) enter into blind darkness: those who delight in knowledge, enter, as it were, into greater darkness .
Tap to expand
All who worship what is not real knowledge (good works), enter into blind darkness: those who delight in real knowledge, enter, as it were, into greater darkness.
Tap to expand
In the imperishable and infinite Highest Brahman , wherein the two, knowledge and ignorance, are hidden , the one, ignorance, perishes , the other, knowledge, is immortal; but he who controls both, kn
Tap to expand
Wide apart and leading to different points are these two, ignorance, and what is known as wisdom. I believe Nakiketas to be one who desires knowledge, for even many pleasures did not tear thee away.
Tap to expand
But whose ignorance is destroyed by the knowledge of Self,—that knowledge of theirs, like the sun, reveals the Supreme (Brahman).
Tap to expand
And they praising him, said: "You, indeed, are our father, you who carry us from our ignorance to the other shore." Adoration to the highest Rishis! Adoration to the highest Rishis! Tat sat. Harih, Om
Tap to expand
'Those who belong to us, whether living or departed, and whatever else there is which we wish for and do not obtain, all that we find there (if we descend into our heart, where Brahman dwells, in the
Tap to expand
Fools dwelling in darkness, wise in their own conceit, and puffed up with vain knowledge, go round and round, staggering to and fro, like blind men led by the blind.
Tap to expand
He who knows at the same time both knowledge and not-knowledge, overcomes death through not-knowledge, and obtains immortality through knowledge.
Tap to expand