IGNORANCE IS NO BLISS!

IGNORANCE IS NO BLISS!

" Ignorance is bliss!", I have heard this so many times

and often wondered about it.Years after having embarked on

my personal journey of the inner Self, i now understand that

"Innocence is bliss". Though there appears to be very little difference between what these two words convey, it is important to remember that the two are not synonymous, and the difference needs to be understood well.

The word ignorance means a lack of knowledge. Innocence denotes a natural, pure state of being.

So we can have an innocent person who is knowledgeable, and we can have an ignorant man who is not even innocent.That is how large the little difference can grow. When we speak of a new born child , being the form of God himself, we aren't really commenting on his worldly ignorance, but admiring his innocence that clearly exhibits itself, as a remarkable self contentedness.

In india, it is said,God Krishna was knowledgeable about the whole universe, even as a child.

( He is reported to have once grinned at his mom, showing her the entire universe in his mouth,

when being checked for eating stolen cookies...!)

But such absolute knowledge (as the symbolism of the universe within, conveyed)

did not divest him ,or his mother of his childish pranks- this, is innocence, this is bliss.

Similarly,one of Lord Shiva's ephitets, is Bhola, ‘the innocent one’.

The lord, being the creator of all, is innocent of his surroundings , not ignorant of them.

What does this mean? It conveys that though Shiva the yogi (meditator) is well aware of his surroundings, he does not let them affect his pristine essence.So too, a modern yogi need not close his eyes to the corruptions of the world, instead he should not let them corrupt his link with his essential Self.

In fact, no religion asks us to hide from tyranny or accept injustice with an ostrich attitude.

We are not here to absolve ourselves of our responsibility in the manifest world,under the garb of being ascetic .

In india, there is even a term for such like yogi ism,"bagula bhagat", the sham !

And when we deceive the world thus, we do remain in self deceit…

so, when all beings are made of the same life force,

what really sets apart a power maddened dictator,a rabid misleader - on the one hand

and the caring, compassionate, effective, enlightened soul on the other?

The difference of unfoldment of his divinity.

The knowledge of the Self, when it dawns,is accompanied by primal innocence.

In a mundane world, where even the police tells us, ignorance of law is no excuse,

the divinely blissful never have to make excuses...!

There is another category of beings, like a cud chewing cow, for example..who do seem to

live in complete ignorance,blissfully, but, all mystic masters from all our lands and at all times,

have told us complete ignorance is not the privelege designed for humans, whereas complete

illumination is...! meditate upon this!
(shail gulhati)