Question 220 – 222: The removal of Ignorance

Glossary:

vasana: tendencies or desires

anatma: unreal; opposite of Atma
anatma: different from the soul
anatma: not the spirit nor soul

abhokta: (abhukta) uneaten; unenjoyed, unused, unexpended; one who has not eaten, enjoyed or expended

Brahm-satta the potency of Brahman

vichar Hin. vichara San. m. deliberation, thought, reflection, pondering; discrimination, examination, self-enquiry: ‘Who am I?’

atmavichar: contemplation of atma

Question 220: Sir, what is the cause of ignorance and how is it destroyed?

Answer: Ramji, desire is the cause of ignorance. Wisdom does not arise until desire is destroyed, and spiritual knowledge is the remedy for the malady of desire. The mind becomes quiescent with spiritual discipline and contemplation. All illusions and desires (vasanas) vanish when consciousness becomes non-ideational.

Question 221: Sir, what happens to a person who cognises the self in the unreal (anatma) and has not attained direct knowledge of the Atma?

Answer: Ramji, such a person is tortured by such enemies as the senses. There is no relationship between the body and Atma, both are of diverse nature. Atma is truth, flawless, stainless, non-doer and non-indulgent (abhokta). The body is inert, unreal, insignificant, destructible and of the nature of ignorance. There is no relationship between these two and their association is cognised due to ignorance. This idea of association vanishes with the attainment of non-dual knowledge. Atma does not imbibe the attributes of a body because Atma is of the nature of wisdom, knowledge. Atma is consciousness and the body is gross; there can be no bond between the two.

Ramji, you are the embodiment of the divine Atma (Atmaswaroop) and not a body. Why do you accept sufferings by associating yourself with the body? It is an illusion to believe that Atma is happy or unhappy due to the pleasures or pains of a body. Atma is beyond joy, sorrow, dotage, death and the ideas of being and non-being. An individual attains high or low birth when he has the body-ego. In reality there is neither birth nor death; it is only the potency of Brahman (Brahm-satta) that is flawless, established in itself. Ignorant persons are always wandering with desires (vasana) and are not established in the Self, ie., they are not established in their embodiment of the Atma (Atmaswaroop) and they adopt diverse bodies in accordance with their actions, or, they wander in the cycle of rebirths.

Question 222: Sir, how does the world, that is an illusion, appear real?

Answer: Ramji, the universe appears real due to ignorance. When an individual is overtaken by ignorance, desires arise and then these are followed by lust, anger, greed and attachment. But when ego is annihilated with the force of spiritual practice, then discrimination and self-inquiry grow, and ignorance disappears gradually. Ignorance is the cause of all sufferings of a person, and it stays until contemplation of the Atma (atmavichar) is developed. But then, after intense practice, contemplation of the Atma arises and ignorance vanishes. It is ignorance which assumes the forms of pleasures and sufferings and an individual accordingly experiences pleasures and severe miseries; it is ignorance in both states. Ignorance continues to grow until discrimination (viveka) and contemplation (vichara) are developed with practice. This ignorance, also called lack of knowledge (avidya), manifests itself as diverse forms of a universe. All things – from a tiny amoeba to Brahma – are illusory and are aspects of ignorance.

Ramji, all that is perceived is maya or an aspect of ignorance.