IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS
" Ignorance is bliss!", I have heard this so many times
and often wondered about it. Years after having embarked on
"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 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.
Meditate upon this!
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