अविद्या
Avidya
avidyā
In simple words
Avidya is not lack of information but a basic mistake about who we are and what the world is — like taking the temporary for permanent, or the body for the self. Many traditions say it is the root of suffering.
What is it?
Avidya is named as the first cause of bondage across many Indian systems. Yoga defines it as taking the impermanent, impure, painful and not-self as permanent, pure, pleasant and self, and lists it as the root of all afflictions. In Advaita it is the beginningless ignorance that superimposes the not-self on the Self. In Buddhism it heads the twelve links of dependent origination. The Gita speaks of knowledge covered by ignorance and dispelled by knowledge like the sun.
Scholar’s note
Advaita's theory of adhyasa (superimposition), set out in Shankara's introduction to his Brahma Sutra commentary, is the classic analysis. Post-Shankara debates concern avidya's locus and object. Buddhist avijja is non-knowledge of the four noble truths. Yoga Sutra 2.5 gives the fourfold definition noted above.How its meaning differs
Ignorance is the superimposition of body, mind and world on the Self; only knowledge, not action, can remove it.
Avidya is the first and root affliction (klesha), mistaking the impermanent and not-self for the permanent and self.
Ignorance of the nature of suffering and its cause is the first link in the chain that keeps rebirth going.
Bondage is due to beginningless karma, which contracts the soul's knowledge; removal is by God's grace through devotion rather than by knowledge alone.
Where it appears in the Gita
नादत्ते कस्यचित्पापं न चैव सुकृतं विभु:।
सर्वव्यापी परमात्मा न किसीके पापकर्मको और न शुभ-कर्मको ही ग्रहण करता है; (किन्तु) अज्ञानसे ज्ञान ढका हुआ है, उसीसे सब जीव मोहित हो रहे हैं।
5.16ज्ञानेन तु तदज्ञानं येषां नाशितमात्मन:।
परन्तु जिन्होंने अपने जिस ज्ञानके द्वारा उस अज्ञानका नाश कर दिया है, उनका वह ज्ञान सूर्यकी तरह परमतत्त्व परमात्माको प्रकाशित कर देता है।
7.13त्रिभिर्गुणमयैर्भावैरेभि: सर्वमिदं जगत्।
इन तीनों गुणरूप भावोंसे मोहित यह सम्पूर्ण जगत् (प्राणिमात्र) इन गुणोंसे अतीत अविनाशी मुझे नहीं जानता।
14.8तमस्त्वज्ञानजं विद्धि मोहनं सर्वदेहिनाम्।
और हे भरतवंशी अर्जुन! सम्पूर्ण देहधारियोंको मोहित करनेवाले तमोगुणको (तुम) अज्ञानसे उत्पन्न होनेवाला समझो। वह प्रमाद, आलस्य और निद्राके द्वारा (देहके साथ अपना सम्बन्ध माननेवालों-को) बाँधता है।
13.11अध्यात्मज्ञाननित्यत्वं
अध्यात्मज्ञानमें नित्य-निरन्तर रहना, तत्त्वज्ञानके अर्थरूप परमात्माको सब जगह देखना —यह (पूर्वोक्त बीस साधन-समुदाय) तो ज्ञान है (और) जो इसके विपरीत है, वह अज्ञान है— ऐसा कहा गया है।
Where else it appears
Follow this idea
Trace the idea from one source to the next.
- 1Textईशोपनिषद्Isha UpanishadA short Upanishad that pairs and contrasts knowledge and ignorance.
- 2Gita verseBhagavad Gita 5.15Knowledge is covered by ignorance, and beings are deluded.
- 3Gita verseBhagavad Gita 5.16Knowledge dispels ignorance and reveals the supreme, like the sun.
- 4Textयोगसूत्रYoga Sutras of PatanjaliAvidya as the root of all afflictions.
- 5Traditionअद्वैत वेदान्तAdvaita VedantaIgnorance as superimposition of the not-self on the Self.
- 6Conceptप्रतीत्यसमुत्पादPratityasamutpada — dependent originationIgnorance as the first link in the Buddhist chain.
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