Is ignorance a thing? What does “ignorance is nothing but the absence of knowledge” mean?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna question often it is said that there is no such thing as ignorance, ignorance is simply the absence of knowledge so what exactly does the statement mean what is knowledge and what is ignorance answer firstly we have the normal understanding of knowledge in terms of information that I get some information, what is the capital of Finland, see I don’t know and then I get that knowledge so this is a common sense way of understanding what is knowledge, it is some factual information which is present or which is absent at certain times now beyond this the Bhagavad Gita also talks about knowledge in a much deeper sense it talks of knowledge in terms of character attributes, qualities for example in 13th chapter it says that from verses 8 to 12 it is given a list of the various qualities that a that a spiritual seeker should cultivate which comprise knowledge so knowledge is not described in terms of information but in terms of qualities now we know that the soul originally has all qualities the soul is godly being a part of god but those qualities are covered by conditionings which cause the soul forgetfulness of its true nature and therefore one needs to purify oneself and when it is purified those qualities develop so that means that actually there is no such thing as ignorance in the sense that the qualities are present so ignorance is simply a temporary covering which is present for some time and then which goes off after some time so when after some time when there is purification not just by itself but by endeavor by sadhana, by purification so in that sense when we say knowledge is qualities then the qualities are present but they are covered at the highest level we also know that knowledge is Krishna himself gyanam gayam gyanam gyanagamyam in the 13th chapter Krishna describes that he is gyanam, he is knowledge is gayam, he is the object of knowledge and gyanagamyam he is the goal of knowledge goal of knowledge means that he is the he is the person who is ultimately to be known and he is the ultimate that’s the goal of knowledge gayam means the object the object of knowledge that means actually whatever we know in this world it is ultimately a manifestation of Krishna in 7.6 Krishna says that whatever we see in this world it is ultimately manifestation of his energies so in that sense whatever we are trying to study it is a manifestation of Krishna in one sense it is Krishna but often while studying it we do not see its connection with Krishna so again there is consciousness but there is lack of Krishna consciousness so what does this mean that knowledge is that and the absence of Krishna consciousness is there and it’s not a thing so generally when we say when that knowledge is that ignorance is essentially the absence of knowledge what it essentially means is that ignorance is not a thing in its own right in the sense that now the word thing itself is a metaphysically complex concept what is a thing and what is not a thing generally we talk about thoughts and things so to think that things means gross things like say a stone or a pen and thoughts are something which are in the mind but from the Vedic perspective even thoughts are things because thoughts are present in the brain sorry not in the brain in the mind and the mind is also material it’s subtle matter but it’s material and because the mind is material it is also whatever is the mind and whatever is present in the mind is also considered to be a thing so in that sense if we consider it to be a thing then we can say that how can we say that it is simply the absence of knowledge because Krishna also talks about ignorance as a thing when he compares it to various other things in 3.38 so he compares it to the way he compares the way ignorance or lust covers a living entity to the way the womb covers embryo to the way smoke covers fire or to the way dust covers a mirror so now in this case the point is when we are talking about a thing that that thing is basically something which has come up because of unawareness of our true identity so now the soul’s original consciousness is still present but that capacity to be conscious is no longer there so now there is a covering in the brain and that is a covering in the subtle body and that is in one sense a thing of course it’s not a thing in the physical sense but it’s a thing in the mental sense but as far as knowledge itself is concerned or ignorance itself is concerned the mind is again the mind is again insentient the mind is not capable of consciousness it is the soul which is conscious but the soul’s consciousness being misdirected from spirit to matter is now is now therefore having limited awareness as compared to what it is capable of having so if you are thinking of ignorance as a layer in the subtle body then it is a thing but if you are thinking of ignorance in terms of unawareness of certain things for example forgetfulness of Krishna then it is not a thing because the soul has the capacity chit shakti is there and the chit shakti is meant ultimately to be conscious of Krishna and the chit shakti is always conscious of Krishna some manifestation of Krishna because there is nothing but Krishna but chit shakti is not always conscious that I am conscious of Krishna not conscious that what I am conscious of is Krishna so in that sense it is the absence of the positive so ignorance means it is not a thing which is coming from somewhere as far as the soul is concerned yes it is a thing as far as the mind and gross body is concerned they have come around the soul but as far as the soul’s capacity for consciousness is concerned capacity for knowledge and enlightenment are concerned the soul always has that capacity but the soul’s capacity is now constricted and the constricted capacity is the result of lack of Krishna consciousness the more the soul becomes Krishna conscious and the more the soul will be able to be aware of things in a holistic perspective in terms of their connection with the totality of reality there is no connection with Krishna so that means ignorance is lack of Krishna consciousness and Krishna consciousness is knowledge and in that sense actually ignorance is simply some ignorance as far as the soul’s capacity to perceive is concerned the soul’s nature of perceiving is concerned is simply the absence of the positive reality that is consciousness which culminates fully in Krishna consciousness thank you question