... g. 11) He who knows That as both in one, the Knowledge and the Ignorance, by the Ignorance crosses beyond death and by the Knowledge enjoys Immortality. VIDYA AND AVIDYA All manifestation proceeds by the two terms, Vidya and Avidya, the consciousness of Unity and the consciousness of Multiplicity. They are the two aspects of the Maya, the formative self-conception of the Eternal. Unity... currents of energy, seen by us as actions or play of forces. When He is thus multiple, He is not bound by His multiplicity, but amid all variations dwells eternally in His own oneness. He is Lord of Vidya and Avidya. They are the two sides of His self-conception (Maya), the twin powers of His Energy (Chit-Shakti). Brahman, exceeding as well as dwelling in the play of His Maya, is Ish, lord of it and free... longer subject to the Ignorance, because free in the Knowledge. The perfection of man, therefore, is the full manifestation of the Divine in the individual through the supreme accord between Vidya and Avidya. Multiplicity must become conscious of its oneness, Oneness embrace its multiplicity. THE EXTREME PATHS The purpose of the Lord in the world cannot be fulfilled by following Vidya alone ...
... is perfect in itself nor the true goal of humanity. Each of them brings its intended portion into the perfect good of the human soul only when it is completed by the other. Brahman is both Vidya and Avidya, both Birth and NonBirth. The realisation of the Self as the unborn and the poise of the soul beyond the dualities of birth and death in the infinite and transcendent existence are the conditions... Realiser of their actualities. He has determined all things sovereignly in their own nature, development and goal from years sempiternal. That determination works out through His double power of Vidya and Avidya, consciousness of essential unity and consciousness of phenomenal multiplicity. The Multiplicity carried to its extreme limit returns upon itself in the conscious individual who is the Lord ...
... 3) Action in Nature and Freedom in the Soul. 4) The One stable Brahman and the multiple Movement. 5) Being and Becoming. 6) The Active Lord and the indifferent Akshara Brahman. 7) Vidya and Avidya. 8) Birth and Non-Birth. 9) Works and Knowledge. These discords are thus successively resolved: GOD AND NATURE 1) Phenomenal Nature is a movement of the conscious Lord. The object... consciousness once they are admitted as a practical necessity of that consciousness. It is obvious that we also by becoming one with the Lord would share in this biune conscious existence. 5 VIDYA AND AVIDYA 7) The knowledge of the One and the knowledge of the Many are a result of the movement of the one consciousness, which Page 88 sees all things as One in their truth-Idea but di ...
... wrong conception of things which stands in opposition to the true Knowledge. In the Vedantic thought of the Upanishad we find the original Vedic terms replaced by the familiar antinomy of Vidya and Avidya, and with the change of terms there has come a certain development of significance: for since the nature of the Knowledge is to find the Truth and the fundamental Truth is the One,—the Veda speaks... × Gita. × In the Upanishads Vidya and Avidya are spoken of as eternal in the supreme Brahman; but this can be accepted in the sense of the consciousness of the multiplicity and the consciousness of the Oneness which by coexistence in the ...
... deep in the modes of working of its own nature;" Devatmashakti , the Energy of the Divine Self, Parabrahman, is Maya; and it is in another passage stated to have two sides, obverse & reverse, Vidya and Avidya, Science and Nescience. Nescience eternally tends to envelop Science, Science eternally tends to displace Nescience. Avidya or Nescience is Parabrahman's power of creating illusions or images... for it is here that He orders and marshals before Himself like a great poet planning a wonderful masterpiece in his mind, the eternal laws of existence and the unending procession of the worlds. Vidya and Avidya are here perfectly balanced, the former still and quiescent though comprehensive, the latter not yet at active Page 398 work, waiting for the command, Let there be darkness. And then ...
... The Isha Upanishad does not teach a pure and exclusive Monism; it declares the One without denying the Many and its method is to see the One in the Many. It asserts the simultaneous validity of Vidya and Avidya and upholds as the object of action and knowledge an immortality consistent with Life and Birth in this world. It regards every object as itself the universe and every soul as itself the divine... the universe to contain. But the Absolute is not a void or negation. It is all that is here in Time and beyond Time. Even oneness is a representation and exists in relation to multiplicity. Vidya and Avidya are equally eternal powers of the supreme Chit. Neither Vidya nor Avidya by itself is the absolute knowledge. (See verses 9-11 .) Still, of all relations oneness is the secret base, not m ...
... have been obliged to help in certain ways. Psychic innocence is a great perfection by itself. What is psychic innocence after all? You have not taken exception to my statement about Vidya and Avidya. These are terms which one can use in different senses. There is no Avidya in the highest planes, if by Avidya you mean Ignorance. You have not taken exception to my statement about the ...
... He, and in that knowledge to extend one's conscious existence so as to embrace the whole Multiplicity. This is the double or synthetic ideal of the Isha Upanishad; to embrace simultaneously Vidya and Avidya, the One and the Many; to exist in the world, but change the terms of the Death into the terms of the Immortality; to have the freedom and peace of the Non-Birth simultaneously with the activity ...
... knowledge based on division of the undivided, insistence on the fragmentary and little and rejection of the vast and complete view of things; it is the undivine Maya.—The Vedantic distinction of Vidya and Avidya made the opposition more trenchant, Vidya being the knowledge of unity, Avidya the knowledge of multiplicity, but the knowledge of both was held to be necessary for the Truth and the Immortality; ...
... really biune. God, unbound by His divisibility, unbound by His indivisibility, weds the One to the Many in the play of His consciousness, in His ineffable beatitude. There God and Nature meet, Vidya and Avidya embrace each other, our real freedom governs and uses consciously our apparent bondage, the bliss of Transcendence joins hands with the bliss of manifestation, God shows Himself in humanity and ...
... those limitations and attain that level of knowledge where he can dwell permanently in existent reality, in light and in immortality. The early Indian educators made a distinction between Vidya and Avidya, between the knowledge of Existence-in-itself, in its totality and multiple manifestation, and the knowledge of multiplicity alone, without the comprehension of the underlying unity. And it was ...
... imperfections in man's life arise out of man's ignorance. The word " Ignorance " is to be understood in the sense given to it in Indian culture. Our ancient culture recognises two kinds of Knowledge: Vidya and Avidya. Vidya is the Knowledge of the Self, identity with our real Being, with One that is the World, with the Supreme. Avidya means Ignorance which includes all the branches of intellectual knowledge ...
... simultaneous all relating view of past, present and future, but in any case as a circumstance of its own timeless being, then we have two powers of consciousness, Knowledge and Ignorance, the Vedantic Vidya and Avidya. These two must be, then, either different and unconnected powers, separately born as well as diverse in their action, separately self-existent in an eternal dualism, or else, if there is a connection ...
... semblances or aspects by which He can be relatively though not absolutely known. These two aspects correspond to the two powers inherent in Parabrahman as the Knower of Himself, the powers of Vidya and Avidya, the power to know and the power not to know, the faculty of Knowledge and the faculty of Illusion. Parabrahman can know Himself as He really is; this is Vidya. He can also imagine Page 175 ...
... limitation. This contrary result comes about by Avidya, the Ignorance of oneness: and the knot of the Ignorance is egoism. Ego The cause of ego is that while by Its double power of Vidya and Avidya the Spirit dwells at once in the consciousness of multiplicity and relativity and in the consciousness of unity and identity and is therefore not bound by the Ignorance, yet It Page 17 ...
... station in the universe of motion and in the becomings of the one Being are set forth and the inner law of all existences declared to be by His conception and determination. ( Verse 8 ) Vidya and Avidya, Becoming and Non-becoming are reconciled by their mutual utility to the progressive self-realisation which proceeds from the state of mortality to the state of Immortality. ( Verses 9-14 ) ...
... oneness and exclude the knowledge of multiplicity, then also there is some kind of incompleteness, inadequacy, and as one Upanishad declares, one is led into even greater darkness. 3 Both vidya and avidya, the knowledge of multiplicity and the knowledge of unity are to be synthesised. Page 313 Indian pedagogy does not exclude the pursuit of the knowledge of multiplicity or the pursuit ...
... those limitations and attain that level of knowledge where he can dwell permanently in existent reality, in light and in immortality. The early Indian educators made a distinction between Vidya and Avidya, between the knowledge of Existence-in-itself, in its totality and multiple manifestation, and the knowledge of multiplicity alone, without the comprehension of the underlying unity. And it ...
... capable of partial knowledge and a superconscient level which is the attainable potentiality. The infinite Brahman holds all of these in its integral being—it holds both knowledge and Ignorance, Vidya and Avidya. At one pole of its being the Alone, the Timeless Self, the One immutable, is present with its dazzling Light. At the other pole is the broken light and mist, the mutable many, the One Self throwing ...
... action in nature and the soul's freedom, the one stable Brahman and the multiple movement, the state of Being and the dynamics of Becoming, the active Lord and the indifferent Akshara Brahman, Vidya and Avidya, birth and non-birth. Works and Knowledge. If "all this is for habitation of the Lord", it is only through the awakening of the consciousness of such constant Divine participation that the individual ...
... different powers and levels of consciousness, one which we can call Over- mind and the other the true Supermind or Divine Gnosis. That is the reason why they got confused about Maya (Overmind-Force or Vidya-Avidya), and took it for the supreme creative power. In so stopping short at what was still a half-light they lost the secret of transformation- even though the Vaishnava and Tantra Yogas groped to find ...
... different powers and levels of consciousness, one which we can call Overmind and the other the true Supermind or Divine Gnosis. That is the reason why they got confused about Maya (OvermindForce or Vidya-Avidya) and took it for the supreme creative power. In so stopping short at what was still a half-light they lost the secret of transformation—even though the Vaishnava and Tantra Yogas groped to find ...
... Upanishad Part II The First Movement—God, Life & Nature Part III The Second Movement—Brahman Self Blissful and All-Blissful Part [IV] The Third Movement—God in World—Vidya & Avidya Part [V] The Fourth Movement—Surya & Agni Part [VI] The Divine Life Of these six parts, only "Part II The First Movement" was worked on. The Life Divine [Draft ...
... an all-embracing universality and the way he chooses for us is to embrace the all-blissful One in the world and in transcendence of the world, as the unity and as the multiplicity, through Vidya & through Avidya, in the Spirit and in the world, by God above Nature and by Nature in God. Ishwara, Brahman, the Life-principle Matariswan, the Bright and Pure Stillness, the supreme & absolute Personality... differently distributed motion in us of Prakriti, of Jagati, of the process of our world-nature. According to our nature we seek God. It is always, in fact, by some principle in Avidya itself that we are moved to exceed Avidya. Even as a man approaches me, says the Gita, precisely in that spirit & in that way I accept and possess him. Ye yathá mám prapadyante táns tathaiva bhajámyaham. The spirit in... sweetness? There is no dragon watching at the gates of God to deny to us any of the fruits of Paradise; the law of divisibility and opposition ceases when we have shaken from our necks His leaden yoke of Avidya. But in these initial couplets the Seer is insisting especially on a divine life in this world, iha, as the necessary basis of the fulfilment which is held in store for us at the end of the utter & ...
... the rhythm & structure of sentence such a juxtaposition as jagatyam jagat in the first verse; while the remarkable development & balance, supremely wedded to the thought, of the six verses about Vidya & Avidya may stand as Page 333 an example of the importance of rhythm & structure of both sentence & verse. The jagatyam jagat of the first verse already alluded to, is a striking instance of ...
... texts avail, since the bearing of the texts has itself to be first decided. And what is the use of proving by logic & a curious scholarship that Tattwam asi should be read atattwam asi or that Vidya & Avidya in a particular Upanishad do not mean what they mean in every other Upanishad or that amritatwam in one text means the state of the gods & in others the state of Brahman? We need rather to experience... understand. We need by practice & experiment, under a fit human guide or guided by the Divinity within, if we have strength & faith in Him, to fathom the outer dissonances & the secret harmonies of Vidya & Avidya, to achieve & enjoy immortality instead of arguing about immortality, to realise the thing the Veda speaks instead of disputing about the words of the text. In the absence of knowledge of the object ...
... its account with Multiplicity; for the Many also are Brahman. It is by Vidya, the Knowledge of the Oneness, that we know God; without it Avidya, the relative and multiple consciousness, is a Page 39 night of darkness and a disorder of Ignorance. Yet if we exclude the field of that Ignorance, if we get rid of Avidya as if it were a thing non-existent and unreal, then Knowledge itself becomes... should man insist on divorcing? To be perfect as He is perfect is the condition of His integral attainment. Through Avidya, the Multiplicity, lies our path out of the transitional egoistic self-expression in which death and suffering predominate; through Vidya consenting with Avidya by the perfect sense of oneness even in that multiplicity, we enjoy integrally the immortality and the beatitude. By... as the supreme good which that non-existent soul has to pursue! For this is the last word of the Knowledge, "There is none bound, none freed, none seeking to be free." Vidya turns out to be as much a part of the Phenomenal as Avidya; Maya meets us even in our escape and laughs at the triumphant logic which seemed to cut the knot of her mystery. Page 43 These things, it is said, cannot be ...
... language, we must be obedient to the text and not presume to subject it ignorantly to our notions. To follow the plain & simple meaning of the words has been therefore the first rule of my exegesis. Vidya & Avidya are plain words, with a well-ascertained sense; I cannot turn aside from it to interpret them as knowledge of the gods & ignorance. Sambhuti, asambhuti, vinasha are words with fixed meanings; my... seems to me, is vitiated by the defects of his method, because in the Isha the clear & apparent meaning of the text conflicts most decisively with some of his favourite tenets. The great passage on Vidya & Avidya, Sambhuti & Asambhuti bristles for him with stumbling blocks. We find him walking amid these difficulties with the powerful but uneasy steps of Milton's angels striding over the burning marl of... by an obstinate persistence in self-will & ignorance. In either case the intention of the Sage is evident from the later passages of this Upanishad. Whether we follow exclusively after Avidya or exclusively after Vidya, we go equally astray, exclusiveness means ignorance, exclusiveness means confusion & division of the indivisible Brahman, & persistence in such error is an obstinacy fatal to the soul ...
... creatures. God in Man (Avatars.) The Self in Nature. Images God as Fate God as Providence Worship (Prayer & Praise) Purusha & Prakritih. III. Vidya & Avidya Salvation. Escape from Avidya. Knowledge, Love & Works. Nirguna & Saguna Brahman. Self-realisation in Virat. States of moksha (Hir[anyagarbha]). Laya (Prajna). Yoga. IV ...
... perfectly from years eternal. Maya therefore is eternal, Avidya is eternal. The question will at once be put, what then of Vidya & Avidya? the Eternal and the Transient? the Is & the Seems to Be? If Avidya is eternal, let us rejoice in her wonders & glories & never strive to escape from her bonds. But if Vidya alone be eternal, then is Avidya a curse and a bondage, what have we to do with it, but shake... therefore were limited either to Vidya or Avidya, obviously Avidya would cease the moment Vidya began and the salvation of one Jivatma would bring about the end of the world for all; just as the Christians say that the crucifixion of Christ saved the world. But this is not so. The power of Shakti of Brahman is twofold & simultaneous; He is able to exercise Vidya & Avidya at the same moment; he eternally... till the proper time for your final exit, you must also see yourself in all creatures. The nature of the Self in a state of Vidya is bliss; now the state of Vidya is a state of self-realisation, the realisation of oneness & universality. The nature of the Self in the state of Avidya, the false sense of diversity and limitation is a state not of pure bliss but of pleasure & pain, for pleasure is different ...
... are, however, on the verge of destruction. rasashuddhi panchaprana panchabhuta Page 310 Amrita— A clear distinction must now be made between the vidya-avidya-siddhi which is constituted by the seven chatusthayas & the higher Amrita in which all limitation is removed & Death, etc entirely cease. Only the first will in this life be entirely accomplished ...
... who follow after the Ignorance, they as if into a greater darkness who devote themselves to the Knowledge alone'. Sankara says I am not willing to give to the words vidya (knowledge) and avidya (ignorance) their ordinary sense; vidya here signifies devavidya , 'the science of propitiating the gods'. The Upanishad declares, ' vinasena mrtyum ttrtva sambhutyamr-tamasnute, 'by the dissolution crosses ...
... the base of all world existence, but consciousness develops itself in two forms, manifestion & non-manifestation, Dawn & Night, or from our point of view, Knowledge&Ignorance, Chittam&Achittam,Vidya & Avidya, consciousness illumined in the form it has taken as in the seer, consciousness dark & involved in the form it has taken as in the clod & less rigidly in the tree. For it is evident that in the... or madhuhastya , he who brings wine of sweetness in his hand. In this puissant light, by this all-environing felicity Agni is to cleave for us through the darknesses & obstructions of this world of Avidya a path towards our goal. Vája means in Veda either possession or having, plenty or a goal; we find it in this latter sense in such expressions as raghavo na vájam , like swift horses to a goal or... does at first dimly & obscurely in the nervous impressions, the emotional response, the sense knowledge, as in a smoke-obscured flame. He has then archayo dhúminah, smoky rays; he acts as a force in Avidya, putro hváryáṇám, a son of the crookednesses although always rijúyuh, moving towards the straightnesses. But when he can get beyond the sense mind into pure mind, then he begins to show his true nature ...
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