‘Ignorance is in the mind and not in the Self’

by Smt Sunetra Chakraborty

Divine Master Prajnanpurush Sri Sri Babathakur often said ‘Ignorance is in the mind and not in the Self’. My mind was not mature enough to comprehend the true essence of these words. I (i.e. the small ‘I’,meaning individual ‘I)’ would rather say, ‘my immature mind has no perception of either an ignorant or a conscious mind’.

Human being is one of the most beautiful manifestations of God because humans can think rationally, something that other living beings cannot. Sri Sri Babathakur would say that a human body with a human mind is not enough to realize its true Self unless and until the mind is trained by a perfect master – someone who has realized the total identity of the Truth Divine with His own Self, as also with the Self of All symptomatizing as ‘I-Reality’ (i.e. a Sat-Cit-Ananda personified Sadguru’). After realization of our true nature, the transmigration of birth and death ends, and the trapped mind gets freedom from all sorts of desire and bondage.

Individual- I is human being/jiva/the enjoyer of life. The reflection of individual- I is world/jagat, the object of enjoyment for all lives.

Ignorance occurs between individual-I and its reflection/jagat, which appears to be true, but in reality is a game of maya/ignorance. How then does one know what is this game of maya or ignorance?

In the book ‘Knowledge of Knowledge’, Divine Master Sri Sri Babathakur revealed the meaning of ignorance which Mr. P.C. Lahiri (a close devotee) has beautifully presented in the language of Master Himself. Sri Sri Babathakur has said ‘the sense of otherness is the first cause of duality through which ignorance manifests all its evolutes one after another in a very mysterious way. The process is that from the sense of otherness arises the desire first to acquire the object of imaginary otherness. For the fulfillment of such desire, sense of agency arises. Agency requires an instrument or medium in and through which it has all its work performed to attain the desired object. This agent is ignorance, and its instruments or organs are ego and intellect… the result is the object which may be agreeable or disagreeable… the agent is the subject and its object of enjoyment and experience is its predicate…’

These revealed words are indeed unconventional.

Material need is created by the mind. So the mind is engaged in a continuous process of achieving. The mind only seeks to achieve material goals. Mind is dominated by the outer nature, and the five senses are its weapons. They do not allow mind (which strives to remain in darkness) to come out of maya’s mischievous games. It is now little clear to us what ignorance/ ajnan is.

What is Self? What is the nature of the Self? Self is the Real–I, not the ego–I. Self is the true Knowledge, the true–I, the upper I, the Atman. There is no being without a Self.

Universal 'I' is God/Iswara/Creator, the Lord of creation. God/Iswara is the Self, present in all beings, from the smallest to the biggest of creations. Self is luminous, pure, free, enlightened, spotless, unmixed, unalloyed, unattached, calm, quiet and homogeneous.

Sri Sri Babathakur has said ‘Self is non-dual, Self is the witness. It witnesses every happening on the earth. Self is the Knowledge Absolute. The Divine Self–I is the substratum (essence) and ever witness of them, which has nothing to do with the subject-object idea and the application of nature (i.e. maya or ignorance)’.

From the above lines of the Divine Master we understand that ignorance cannot be present in the Self because Self is Pure Consciousness. The Self witnesses all games of the ajnan/maya and jiva/jagat, but never gets attached to it. It remains eternally free of all bondage.

Divine Master Sri Sri Babathakur has said ‘Your very true nature is Sat-Cit-Ananda, the Self.’