Introduction to the Bhagavad-Gita- Part 2: Post-6: Swami Krishnananda.

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Friday 30, Aug 2024, 06:40.
Article
Scriptures
Introduction to the Bhagavadgita: Part 2.
POST-6.
Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken on March 17th, 1974)

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Avidya, or ignorance, is the mistaking of the transitory for the permanent, the impure for the pure, pain for pleasure, and the not-Self for the Self, as we have a beautiful definition given in the sutra of Patanjali: 

anitya asuci dukkha anatmasu nitya suci sukha atma khyatih avidya (Y.S. 2.5). 

This is the meaning of ignorance. Ignorance does not necessarily mean the total oblivion of what is there. It is not like being fast asleep. Avidya, or ignorance, is a positive error of a palpable nature, and it is not merely a negativity or an absence of substance. It was not that Dhritarashtra did not know what was right, but he deliberately did what was wrong. This is the speciality of ajnana or avidya. We go out of the way to do the wrong thing, under the impression that we are doing the right thing.

Why does this impression arise in the mind? What makes us mistake that which is absolutely wrong for the right thing? It is because of a misdirection given from our own consciousness that is defiled by the encrustation of avidya.

The moment there is action on the part of avidya, ahamkara comes to the field and takes charge of the entire situation. When we commit one mistake, we go on committing several mistakes, one after the other. If we tell one lie, we have to tell several other lies to protect that lie; otherwise, it will be let out. The scene of avidya, which is the basic reason behind what we call the suffering of samsara, is invariably associated with egoistic conduct on the part of the individual.

For purposes of a practical study of the Bhagavadgita, we shall take into consideration the position of the human being in the structural pattern of the universe. The human being has the aspect of Dhritarashtra and also the aspect of Duryodhana, and these two sides of human nature create an imbroglio before every individual in the world. What we find in front of us every day is nothing but a complex situation, psychologically as well as socially. Samsara is a psychological and social complex. It is a Chakravyuha Fort, as we may call it in terms of the Mahabharata epic. It is a fortress built in such a way that we cannot gain entry into it easily. We have to pass through a very winding passage, and are likely to get lost in it in the middle. Such is the field of action; such is the arena of human activity, duty, conduct; such is this world.

The Mahabharata field is this world itself. That is the Dharmakshetra and the Kurukshetra. Here we have a field which requires of us a particular type of approach and conduct, where we cannot afford to make a mistake, where we are compelled to act, and yet compelled to act only in a particular manner. This is a great difficulty indeed before us. That we cannot abstain from action is something difficult even to understand, because we are forced by the circumstances into which we are born to act. But because we have to act, it does not mean that we can act as we like. There is another compulsion, restriction, upon our conduct. We have to act; act we must, but in a given manner alone. We have to move along the winding passages of the Chakravyuha Fort. If we do not enter it, we are not going to win the battle; but we also must have a knowledge of how to enter it, how to move through it, and how to fight there in the thick of the arena.

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Continued

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