Dear J,
You’ll hear ‘Bliss of Knowledge’ everywhere, but ‘ignorance is bliss’ too. I’m not sure if these are conflicting opinions or different sites. I will be glad to receive your reply.
with love,
Krishnamurthy
Dear Krishnamurthy,
Indeed, there is such a thing as ‘complete ignorance’. I can assert that babies, mentally retarded individuals, and some truly foolish people share the trait of complete ignorance. Rarely do those born with wisdom possess that innocence. Dosteyesky is interested in this concept; he wrote some major ‘devine fool’ characters, including Prince Myshkin.
In this state, worldly sins and crimes do not interfere. Sins and crimes approach a soul in one way. Vedanta classifies it as Ahangara (ego). In our daily lives, ahangara appears as selfishness and self-centeredness. We can define egolessness as total ignorance. It is surely a state of liberation and bliss.
However, ego is the first thing that appears in life. Saivaism calls it Anavamalam. Self-consciousness appears in the first atom (anu) of the body as two feelings: “I am here” and “I shall grow.” The body itself begins to form only after ‘anavamalam’ has taken shape.
Even those who have a small trace of that ego or arrogance can attain happiness and liberation only through knowledge. Knowledge is liberation from the misery of egoism. Liberation from the ego that knowledge creates is possible only through enlightenment beyond knowledge.
Where there is no knowledge, there is only the ego’s arrogance. We can see that a decrease in knowledge results in an increase in arrogance. We usually assume that the uneducated are unassuming and simple. Some learn through personal, harsh experience that it is not true.
Uneducated people are many times more arrogant than others. If they are at the bottom of the economic ladder, they tend to assume humility as a disguise for their arrogance. If they receive a small amount of money, their arrogance will emerge with enormous force.
If we set aside our romantic notions for a moment, we can comprehend that their lack of happiness stems from their arrogance. Uneducated people always have pointless fears and unrealistic desires. Therefore, their hearts are filled with malice and envy. Most uneducated people are always in some sort of conflict with others throughout their lives. Usually, it takes away all their happiness.
The uneducated have no positive happiness except for simple physical pleasures like drink, food, and sex. They have only negative happiness. We can see it clearly around us.
But we want to believe that the uneducated are happy. We believe that our suffering is due to our education. But actually, our suffering is caused by a lack of education. It is because we are not properly learning what we need to learn.
Most of our education consists of basic language and general education, with a bit of vocational education on top. This type of education is not truly considered an education, but rather a basic training. But we won’t accept it as insufficient education; our pride will block us from doing so.
So we think of ourselves as knowledgeable people. We tend to believe that all the misery we suffer due to a lack of proper education is the misery of education itself. The result is a delusion that the uneducated are happy.
Is the bliss of knowledge true? Any education is as much fun as it gets. We all know that solving a simple mathematical problem brings us happiness. Definitely more pleasure than a biryani.
True education gives more and more pleasure. Philosophical education, philological education, aesthetic education, and practical education give real bliss. Because they liberate us from the shackles of our mind.
Jeyamohan
