Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #7 – In Defense of Ignorance

“In defense of ignorance”?

Well, here it is:

“Those who worship avidyā (the culture of ignorance) come back to this world. However, those who are fully engaged only in vidyā (the culture of knowledge) fall even into a greater darkness.” Śrī Īśopaniṣad 9[1]

But how can that be?

Words often have multiple meanings depending on their context. Here vidyā refers to spiritual knowledge and avidyā refers to material knowledge. If we understand avidyā as material knowledge, the quandary is resolved.

Material knowledge is fundamentally ignorance because it binds one to the world of birth and death. But to engage in vidyā without it is in some ways worse. Śrīla Prabhupāda describes the utility of avidyā in his commentary to verse nine:

“The culture of spiritual knowledge necessitates the help of the body and mind; therefore maintenance of the body and mind is required if we are to reach our goal.”

In other words, to take to spiritual life without the understanding of how to keep the body and soul together is dangerous.

Another good example of such darkness is the premature adoption of sannyāsa. Sannyāsa means a life exclusively dedicated to the cultivation of vidyā. When it is adopted before one has been purified by avidyā, meaning working through one’s desires in varṇāśrama, then disaster looms. Has anything caused more disruption and pain in ISKCON that the repeated fall of those in the sannyāsa order who renounced the world prematurely?

It should be clear that when talking about avidyā, Śrī Īśopaniṣad it is talking about Vedic avidyā, material knowledge in support of vidyā, not illicit activities of gross ignorance, as avidyā on its own binds one to this world.

It should also be noted that within avidyā are certain skills almost essential to the path of bhakti. For example, the Six Goswamis, especially Śrī Rūpa and Śrī Sanātana, studied and wrote commentaries on poetics. It is an essential skill in understanding and expressing the finer points of vraja bhakti. Again, standing alone, a study of poetics by itself is not transcendental.

Two verses later in Śrī Īśopaniṣad the value of avidyā is stated emphatically—we should not renounce those things that have value in bringing us to the platform of spiritual knowledge (vidyā) even if they seem to be material.

“Only one who can learn the process of nescience [avidyā] and that of transcendental knowledge [vidyā] side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.” Śrī Īśopaniṣad 11

And that’s my defense of Ignorance!

[1] This is Śrīla Prabhupāda’s translation of the verse:

“Those who engage in the culture of nescient activities shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge.”

I used in my post the translation of the verse from Hari Parshad’s class during the Saranagati retreat at the Govardhan Retreat Center from February 5th through 9th of this year, titled Bhoga, Tyāga, and Beyond.