Ignorance, the Source of All Sorrows

Sage Vasishtha 

Correct understanding of the body and the intelligence that dwells in the body enables one to understand the entire creation in its material and its spiritual aspects, as easily as one sees objects illumined by a lamp. It is only when there is not this right understanding that deluded and wrong notions rise and flourish within one's heart - notions that are utterly devoid of substance. Befuddled by these wrong notions which arise in the absence of the light of true knowledge, one is constantly and restlessly carried hither and thither like a blade of grass in the wind. 

In the absence of the 'taste' (direct knowledge) of the cosmic intelligence, the senses endeavor to apprehend the objects and vainly imagine that such contacts gives rise to meaningful experience! Surely, the infinite and inexhaustible intelligence (consciousness) dwells in all these: however, on account of the absence of self knowledge, it appears to be ignorant of itself and therefore limited and finite.

The life-force and its retinue function merely to provide energy for the movements inherent in living, not with any other motive. In the absence of self-knowledge, all the talking and roaring which people indulge in are like sound produced by the gun! They inevitably proceed towards destruction and do not lead to salutary results. Fools enjoy the fruits of their labor, not knowing that they are resting and sleeping on a rock that is burning hot. 

Keeping company with such fools is like sitting in a forest on a tree which is about to be felled. Whatever you do for the sake of such people is like beating the air with a rod. What is given to them is thrown into mud, and to converse with them is as meaningful as the dog barking at the sky. 

Ignorance of the self is the source of all troubles and calamities. Tell me, O Rama, is there a single trouble that does not spring from the ignorance of the self? This entire creation is pervaded by the ignorance which sustains it. One who is ignorant is visited again and again by terrible sorrow and rarely by pleasure. Sources of sorrow like body, wealth and wife do not cease in the case of one who is ignorant of the self. For there is no end to the ignorance of one who firmly believes that the body is the self: how can true self knowledge arise in him? As long as such ignorance rules the fool falls again and again. His sorrow is unceasing. Even the cool rays of the moon are experienced as poisonous fumes by him. The portals of hell are wide open, eager to receive such a fool.