Ignorance – In Gita Verse 4.27 Others, who are interested in achieving self-realization through control of the mind and senses, offer the functions of all the senses, and of the life breath, as oblations into the fire of the controlled mind.
Krishna says that a self-realized person will offer to the Universe, God, his mind, all the six senses out of their own realization and not for the rituals.
The person who follows the words is ignorant according to Krishna. He is not – a person of knowing. For Krishna or in that case for any enlightened person, unless one has realized his mind, functioning of mind, functioning of senses, only that person knows what can we offer to God. God is not interested in any of your collections of material world but he is interested in human beings to offer his mind, and senses which are carried forward from animals. When human beings evolved from animals to human beings they have brought the seed of consciousness. Unless we become aware of that seed and nurture that seed, allow it to grow by transcending animal nature and senses we cannot know ourselves. We remain ignorant. Even if we know all the scriptures of the worlds by heart then also we cannot know ourselves. Only way is to transcend it.
The state of ignorance is the cause of all delusions, of all unrealities, of all appearances, but to know more is not the state of knowledge. Ignorance is the cause, but knowledge – in the sense of knowledgeability – is not the remedy. You can know more and more and more, but you remain the same. Knowledge becomes an addiction. You go on adding to it, but the being to which you add it remains the same. You know more, but you are not more.
The root cause of ignorance can only be dissolved when you are more, when your being is stronger, when your being is powerful, when your being has awakened. The root cause of all suffering is ignorance, but knowledge is not the remedy – awakening is the remedy.
If you don’t understand this subtle distinction, firstly you will be lost in ignorance, and then you will be lost – and more so – in knowledge. In the Upanishads there is one of the most radical statements ever uttered. The statement is that in ignorance people are lost, but in knowledge they are lost in a deeper way. Ignorance misguides, knowledge misguides more.
Ignorance is not absence of knowledge. If it was absence of knowledge then things would have been very, very easy – and cheap. You can borrow knowledge; you cannot borrow being. You can even steal knowledge but you cannot steal being; you have to grow into it. Remember this as a criterion: unless you grow in something it is never yours. When you grow, only then does something belong to you. You may possess something, but don’t be misguided by the possession. The possession remains separate – it can be taken away from you. Only your being cannot be taken away from you. So unless knowing happens in your being, ignorance cannot be dissolved.
Ignorance is not absence of knowledge; ignorance is absence of awareness. Ignorance is a sort of sleepiness, a sort of slumber, a sort of hypnosis, as if you are walking in sleep, doing things in sleep. You are not aware of what you are doing. You are not a light; your whole being is dark. You can know about light, but that knowledge about light will never become light. On the contrary, it will become a hindrance toward light, because when you know too much about light you forget that the light has not happened to you. You are deceived by your own knowledge.
Krishna says to Arjuna that unless you will be self-realized you will not be able to fight the war as a vehicle of the universe. If you follow the knowledge without any understanding then there is no possibility to transcend your senses and fight this war. Without your self-realization, if you will fight this war you will not be able to sacrifice your mind, ego and senses to the universe. So come back to your subjectivity and become self-realized, which is the only way to offer ourselves to God.
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