VIDYA AND AVIDYA(CONTND.)
अन्यदेवाहुर्विद्यया न्यदेवाहुर्विद्यया।
इति शुश्रुम धीराणां ये नस्तद्विचचक्षिरे ॥10॥
Anyad-evahur-vidyaya anya-dahur-avidyaya,
iti susruma dhiranam ye nastad vica-caksire(10)
" One thing,they say,is verily obtained from Vidya,another thing they say from Avidya;thus,we have heard from the wise who explained that to us."(Swami Chinmayananda)
Here,the great Rsi is trying to elaborate the idea of Vidya and Avidya, and give it a new touch of orientation and a revolutionary re-statement,declaring that the popular notion about these two terms is not all the truth.The results of vidya and avidya are different from each other, each of them serving a definite purpose. Having stated this,the Rsiimmediately addsthatthisopinionisnotaproductofofhis own intellect,but that this is what he has 'heard from the wise who explained that to us.' This is a very significant statement,as in Hinduism we accept some statement only when it has stood the testoftime and repeated subjective experience of generation of sages.Hinduism,thus,is not the product of a single Prophet,but is the wisdom-declarations rising from th eexperienced bosoms of realised Masters, which have been relived by generations of disciple-class. A truth that has been tested and found fit upon the touch-stoneof life by repeated generations alone is acceptedby the Aryan-devotees.
According to Swami Chinmayananda,"Both vidya and avidya,in fact,are bondages.Knowledge is certainly a release from the shackles of ignorance,but the knowledge itself is a painful limitation upon the Absolute. One may get over the confusion of ignorance with knowledge but,in itself,this will find us only chained by the limitations of knowledge.To transcend both is to reach the state of Absolute Perfection.
After prefacing thus,in the following stanza,we get a correct indication of the exact import and mutual relationship that is to be maintained between vidya and avidya.
विद्यां चाविद्यां च यस्तद वेदोभयम सह।
अविद्यया मृत्युं तीर्त्वा विद्ययामृतमश्नुते ॥11॥
Vidyam cavidyam ca yastad vedo-bhayagm saha,
avidyaya mrtyum tirtva vidyaya-mrtam-asnute(11)
" He,who knows at the same time both Vidya and Avidya,overcomes death by Avidya and obtains immortality by Vidya." (SwamiChinmayananda)
In explaining the great theory of' 'action and inaction' the Rsis have given this pregnant mantra to their Aryan generations. In the firststanza,they condemned both vidya and avidya as guiding us only to a dark age when one pursues one to the exclusion of other.Thereafter, quoting the greater Rsis of earlier periods, the Seer is now summarising how they are to be pursued in a happy sythesis. Synthesis of material activity(karma)and spiritual knowledge(Jnana) has often been advocated by the modern teachers of synthesis. Here, it is said that he,who combines in himself/herself both vidya and avidya together, would overcome 'death by avidya' and obtain 'Immortality by vidya'.
They must be considered as serially connected: Selfless dedicated work(Avidya) preparesone for contemplation,and when through contemplation Vidya is fulfilled in direct apprehension ofthe Self, thereafter the Perfect One undertakes karma as as a sacred satisfying fulment of his realisation and spiritual experience.
Modern environment is full of feverish activity - social, communal, national and international,and many among us are the blind advocates ofactivity. Many are leaders and many others are the potential ones, as perceived by them. Despite of all these leaders and their leading, the world,as such, is gasping forward from confusion to despair and steadily and systematically tottering from despair to disaster! The diagnosis and the cure are contained in the secret depths of this very pregnant mantra.
Without Vidya, to act in the outer world of avidya is almost impossible,and unprofitable as well. Without knowing the rhysthm and harmonyofthe entirecosmos which unite togetherthe plurality,toactin the world of multiplicity would add to the existing confusion prevalent in the world. Leaders and workers are striving to bring about unity,harmony,peaceand joy in the world, while they themselves have not realised any one of these in themselves! With an ill-adjusted instrument of disharmony and discord,no musician,however great and willing, can strike out even a single note of perfect beauty and mastery!
This Mantra says that certainly the experienced knowledgeof the Self(Atma-jnana) would give us Eternal Liberation and Immortal Existence; for,thereby we shall discover that we are not the body-mind-intellect equipment to which belongs the irreparable change called death.Mortality is the tragic fate of the matter; Immortality is the blissful nature of the Spirit.
But having gained Vidya in this very life,we are supposed to livei n thisworld as a liberated soul, to fulfil his self-realisation in and around through his activities in the world outside.Earlier,wehave seen in verses ssix and seven,that Self-realisation is not only the experience that one's own Self is divine,but this realisation can be complete only when one realises that his one'sown Self in the Self-in-all.Unless we include and incorporate in our Self-experience the pluralistic world of imperfection also,the realisation cannot be called complete. Rooted in the knowledge of our own Self,the Self-realised sage or Seer becomes the most potent fator in the world to carve out for it a destiny of unquestionable brilliance and success.
No doubt, an individual who has thus worked in the world in organising humanity and in rehabilitating his generation in the greater values of life, eternally comes to live in the memory ofthe world,carving out for themselves to remain, as it were,eternally on the surface of the globe. Buddha and Sankara,for example,as mortals gave no easy walk over to .death . These and greatMasters, having worked for the uplift of society,have entered into the warp ofthe social fabric of the generation to follow to such an extent, that posterity could not willingly let die their memories and contribution. Besides, such great of realisation 'overcome death' that is caused by Ignorance(Avidya). Death can frighten only him who mis -understands himself to be the body, but to him, who has realised that he is the Atman, death is only one of the meaningless delusory changes in his body - zone with which he maintained a sense of possessiveness during his days of ignorance.
The phrase 'And obtains immortality by Vidya' is quite significant. Mortality,afterall, is the fate of matter and not the destiny of the Spirit. Swami Chinmayananda has very beautifully added,"the potmay breakand destroy the pot-space; butthe 'space'in the potisneitherbroken nor overmade; it isthe all-pervading space,ever-the -same. Similarly,birth and death,decay anddisease,bondageand liberation,sorrowand joy, success and failure, etc.,are all experiences available only to the ego- centre,and by themselves are but delusion-created appearances. This is realised whenthe Pure Awareness comes to flashout,as it were, through the matter-envelopments. The ego ends, where'Godhood-experience'starts."
The mortal,minus his ego,is the Immortal Truth. When the seeker, through meditation, transcends all his identifications with his body,mind and intellect- he comes to rediscover himself/herself to be the Pure Atman, and to him, thereafter,there can be no-rebirth nor the chain of Karmic effects to bind him down
to the wheels of samsara. Naturally,he gains,in the language of our experience of mortality,the state of Immortality.
(To be contnd.)
Vedprakash
http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/
अन्यदेवाहुर्विद्यया न्यदेवाहुर्विद्यया।
इति शुश्रुम धीराणां ये नस्तद्विचचक्षिरे ॥10॥
Anyad-evahur-vidyaya anya-dahur-avidyaya,
iti susruma dhiranam ye nastad vica-caksire(10)
" One thing,they say,is verily obtained from Vidya,another thing they say from Avidya;thus,we have heard from the wise who explained that to us."(Swami Chinmayananda)
Here,the great Rsi is trying to elaborate the idea of Vidya and Avidya, and give it a new touch of orientation and a revolutionary re-statement,declaring that the popular notion about these two terms is not all the truth.The results of vidya and avidya are different from each other, each of them serving a definite purpose. Having stated this,the Rsiimmediately addsthatthisopinionisnotaproductofofhis own intellect,but that this is what he has 'heard from the wise who explained that to us.' This is a very significant statement,as in Hinduism we accept some statement only when it has stood the testoftime and repeated subjective experience of generation of sages.Hinduism,thus,is not the product of a single Prophet,but is the wisdom-declarations rising from th eexperienced bosoms of realised Masters, which have been relived by generations of disciple-class. A truth that has been tested and found fit upon the touch-stoneof life by repeated generations alone is acceptedby the Aryan-devotees.
According to Swami Chinmayananda,"Both vidya and avidya,in fact,are bondages.Knowledge is certainly a release from the shackles of ignorance,but the knowledge itself is a painful limitation upon the Absolute. One may get over the confusion of ignorance with knowledge but,in itself,this will find us only chained by the limitations of knowledge.To transcend both is to reach the state of Absolute Perfection.
After prefacing thus,in the following stanza,we get a correct indication of the exact import and mutual relationship that is to be maintained between vidya and avidya.
विद्यां चाविद्यां च यस्तद वेदोभयम सह।
अविद्यया मृत्युं तीर्त्वा विद्ययामृतमश्नुते ॥11॥
Vidyam cavidyam ca yastad vedo-bhayagm saha,
avidyaya mrtyum tirtva vidyaya-mrtam-asnute(11)
" He,who knows at the same time both Vidya and Avidya,overcomes death by Avidya and obtains immortality by Vidya." (SwamiChinmayananda)
In explaining the great theory of' 'action and inaction' the Rsis have given this pregnant mantra to their Aryan generations. In the firststanza,they condemned both vidya and avidya as guiding us only to a dark age when one pursues one to the exclusion of other.Thereafter, quoting the greater Rsis of earlier periods, the Seer is now summarising how they are to be pursued in a happy sythesis. Synthesis of material activity(karma)and spiritual knowledge(Jnana) has often been advocated by the modern teachers of synthesis. Here, it is said that he,who combines in himself/herself both vidya and avidya together, would overcome 'death by avidya' and obtain 'Immortality by vidya'.
They must be considered as serially connected: Selfless dedicated work(Avidya) preparesone for contemplation,and when through contemplation Vidya is fulfilled in direct apprehension ofthe Self, thereafter the Perfect One undertakes karma as as a sacred satisfying fulment of his realisation and spiritual experience.
Modern environment is full of feverish activity - social, communal, national and international,and many among us are the blind advocates ofactivity. Many are leaders and many others are the potential ones, as perceived by them. Despite of all these leaders and their leading, the world,as such, is gasping forward from confusion to despair and steadily and systematically tottering from despair to disaster! The diagnosis and the cure are contained in the secret depths of this very pregnant mantra.
Without Vidya, to act in the outer world of avidya is almost impossible,and unprofitable as well. Without knowing the rhysthm and harmonyofthe entirecosmos which unite togetherthe plurality,toactin the world of multiplicity would add to the existing confusion prevalent in the world. Leaders and workers are striving to bring about unity,harmony,peaceand joy in the world, while they themselves have not realised any one of these in themselves! With an ill-adjusted instrument of disharmony and discord,no musician,however great and willing, can strike out even a single note of perfect beauty and mastery!
This Mantra says that certainly the experienced knowledgeof the Self(Atma-jnana) would give us Eternal Liberation and Immortal Existence; for,thereby we shall discover that we are not the body-mind-intellect equipment to which belongs the irreparable change called death.Mortality is the tragic fate of the matter; Immortality is the blissful nature of the Spirit.
But having gained Vidya in this very life,we are supposed to livei n thisworld as a liberated soul, to fulfil his self-realisation in and around through his activities in the world outside.Earlier,wehave seen in verses ssix and seven,that Self-realisation is not only the experience that one's own Self is divine,but this realisation can be complete only when one realises that his one'sown Self in the Self-in-all.Unless we include and incorporate in our Self-experience the pluralistic world of imperfection also,the realisation cannot be called complete. Rooted in the knowledge of our own Self,the Self-realised sage or Seer becomes the most potent fator in the world to carve out for it a destiny of unquestionable brilliance and success.
No doubt, an individual who has thus worked in the world in organising humanity and in rehabilitating his generation in the greater values of life, eternally comes to live in the memory ofthe world,carving out for themselves to remain, as it were,eternally on the surface of the globe. Buddha and Sankara,for example,as mortals gave no easy walk over to .death . These and greatMasters, having worked for the uplift of society,have entered into the warp ofthe social fabric of the generation to follow to such an extent, that posterity could not willingly let die their memories and contribution. Besides, such great of realisation 'overcome death' that is caused by Ignorance(Avidya). Death can frighten only him who mis -understands himself to be the body, but to him, who has realised that he is the Atman, death is only one of the meaningless delusory changes in his body - zone with which he maintained a sense of possessiveness during his days of ignorance.
The phrase 'And obtains immortality by Vidya' is quite significant. Mortality,afterall, is the fate of matter and not the destiny of the Spirit. Swami Chinmayananda has very beautifully added,"the potmay breakand destroy the pot-space; butthe 'space'in the potisneitherbroken nor overmade; it isthe all-pervading space,ever-the -same. Similarly,birth and death,decay anddisease,bondageand liberation,sorrowand joy, success and failure, etc.,are all experiences available only to the ego- centre,and by themselves are but delusion-created appearances. This is realised whenthe Pure Awareness comes to flashout,as it were, through the matter-envelopments. The ego ends, where'Godhood-experience'starts."
The mortal,minus his ego,is the Immortal Truth. When the seeker, through meditation, transcends all his identifications with his body,mind and intellect- he comes to rediscover himself/herself to be the Pure Atman, and to him, thereafter,there can be no-rebirth nor the chain of Karmic effects to bind him down
to the wheels of samsara. Naturally,he gains,in the language of our experience of mortality,the state of Immortality.
(To be contnd.)
Vedprakash
http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/
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