What does knowledge in the mode of ignorance mean in today’s world?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
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so Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita says that knowledge in the mode of ignorance means to consider one thing as everything yes, this is 18.22 yattu kuchnava dekhasmi kariye saktam ahaitukam atatvarthava alpam cheta tamasam udhaharitam so yattu kuchnava dekhasmi one thing as kuchnava, everything one thing as everything, kariye saktam ahaitukam one does not consider, one becomes very attached one does not consider the ultimate cause of things atatvarthava alpam cheta there is no sound understanding of reality Alpha, it is meagre, it takes one fragment of reality and goes into it.
So we could say that in today’s framework, Scientism would be Tamasic knowledge. It is knowledge, now this concept of knowledge in ignorance, normally we say knowledge is the opposite of ignorance. So knowledge in the mode of ignorance means what? How could knowledge be in ignorance? There can be some knowledge that actually increases our ignorance.
Because we get so caught in a tunnel vision of reality, that now a tunnel, I can see somewhere ahead in the tunnel also. But it is a long tunnel and I just keep going deeper and deeper into the tunnel, there is a big world outside which I don’t know anything. So, when one thinks of matter to be everything, there are functional materials who say that matter is all that matters, but there are fanatical materials also, they say matter is all that exists.
So they are, what Krishna talks about knowledge in the mode of ignorance, they claim matter to be everything. Instead of trying to be pure devotees of Krishna, they are pure devotees of matter. Matter first, matter only, nothing except matter.
So that is, to take one fragment of reality and make it everything, that is knowledge. Although we are getting more and more factual knowledge in terms of information, but in terms of a comprehension of the full picture, we are actually going deeper and deeper into ignorance. That is knowledge in the mode of ignorance.