Vidya and Avidya

Acharya Prashant

17min

548reads

Acharya Prashant: We do not pay attention to stuff physical and instead keep talking of consciousness, why? Because remember that consciousness is the subject matter of vidya. Avidya talks of everything except consciousness. So science, technology, everything comes in the domain of *avidya*—history, geography, languages, mathematics, economics.

What is it that vidya comprises? — Consciousness. Now, look at this fellow who is trying to get vidya, he worships vidya without knowing anything or much about the factual or objective world. Do you understand the situation? He is saying, “I do not know anything about the world, I do not know about the material, I do not know about the body or sensual perception. But I am greatly interested in consciousness.” This man does not understand the material but he is interested in consciousness. Is this clear what this man wants?

Now, what is consciousness? Consciousness is that which remains sandwiched between the material and the transcendental. Without the material man’s consciousness is nothing, or is it? Remove your brain, where is your consciousness? Remove your brain, where are your grand thoughts? Remove your brain, can you even meditate? Have you ever found a headless man meditating? Even to meditate you require this physical head. That is the nature of man’s consciousness — even though it aspires for the skies, yet it is factually rooted in the earth. It merely aspires for the skies, remember, those skies remain unknown to it. But what is it factually rooted in? The earth.

Now, what is this man saying? This pursuer of vidya, what is he saying? He is saying, “All I care for is the skies. I am a student of consciousness, all I care for is the skies. I have nothing to do with matters of the earth because they all come in the purview of

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So, even if you are trained in science and technology you can still start feeling, “You see this man is saying that he has directly met God, on those hills. So, I mean what if he is even five percent right, why should I run the risk of displeasing, you know such a big man? It is far better to you know touch his feet and just believe in whatever he says. Afterall, what do I lose. And his stories are big, seriously big and his claims are so outrageous that I can’t even dismiss them. He says that ‘If your nose has fallen off your face then I can pick up your nose and just put it back.’ He says, If your hair has fallen, then give me your hair and I will plant it back. Or if your soul has left your body, you have died, then I can catch your soul like Jacques Kallis (South African cricket player) diving in the slips. And then I can put it back in your body.’ And you start feeling doubtful, you say, “This man is surely talking a lot of horse shit or snake shit, but what if there is an iota of truth in what he is claiming? Let me play safe. I mean all that he is demanding is rupees one lakh for five hundred milliliters of consecrated water. I can pay that to him, you know”. He says that if he touches a tumbler of water then the water remembers his touch. “Water has memories,” he says. That, too, in front of technical people and then he says, “Now this water has been consecrated and I will sell it for one lakh rupees.” “I mean it’s just one lakh rupees, I can just pay and get some insurance cover you know. Otherwise, who wants to incur his wrath.” That’s what the Rishi is warning us against here.—Anybody who says he has knowledge of divinity is to be avoided like death. Anybody who says he has had profound experiences in meditation is to be just smiled at. Anybody who says that he can see your aura is a fool. Anybody who says that he experiences energy rising from one point in the body to another point in the body is in self-delusion. These are the people the Upanishad is warning us against. Anybody who says that something physical starts happening to him, when he visualizes god in this way or that way, is just cheating himself. Are you getting this?

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