POWER OF IGNORANCE
avyaktam vyaktimaapannam manyante maamabuddhayah
param bhaavamajaananto mamaavyayamanuttamam // 7.24 //
The foolish think of Me, the Unmanifest, as endowed with manifest form, not knowing My supreme, immutable and transcendent nature.
That which is available for the perception of the sense organs or for the feelings of the mind or for the understanding of the intellect is called the `manifest'. That which is not available for any one of these instruments of cognition, feeling or understanding is considered as `unmanifest'.
The ignorant think that the Lord, too, like an ordinary mortal, comes down from the unmanifested state and assumes a body, impelled by His past karma. This belief is due to their ignorance of His real nature, which is unchanging and ever luminous. Thus disregarding the Lord, the foolish worship the minor deities for the fulfillment of their selfish desires.
The misunderstood men come to the conclusion that physical glory of an incarnation is all the eternal truth. Although the form of an incarnation can be the focus of concentration, it cannot by itself be the Truth. The forms we impose on the Formless are due to our limitations. We turn away from the contemplation of the Ultimate Reality to concentrate upon imaginative reconstructions.
All Gods except the One Unmanifest Eternal are forms imposed on Him. God is not one among many. He is the One behind the ever changing many, who stands beyond all forms, the immutable centre of mobility.
CAUSE OF IGNORANCE
naaham prakaashah sarvasya yogamaayaasamaavritah
moodho'yam naabhijaanaati loko maamajamavyayam // 7.25 //
Veiled by My Maya born of the gunas, I am not revealed to all. This deluded world does not know Me as the unborn and eternal.
The Lord says this deluded world does not know Me, the Unborn and the Immortal because of their own illusion, born out of the three Gunas which veil Me from them. Maya is the illusion born out of the three Gunas through which the Non-dual expresses itself. The principle of Maya functioning in an individual is termed ignorance. By the play of the three Gunas or temperaments one gets confused and hence the Self is not available for direct experience.
For a person without any knowledge of electricity, it is unmanifest in a glowing bulb. Once he comes to have the knowledge of the principle of electricity, it becomes manifest to him in the very same bulb. Similarly, when through self-control, listening, reflection and meditation, the agitations of the mind are controlled and quietened and thereby when the veiling is removed, the seeker rediscovers `Me, the unmanifest, the unborn, the Immutable'.
As long as the agitations of the mind veil the intellect from its awareness of the Self, the limited ego will continue to wander about among the sensual desires and cannot experience Pure Consciousness even for a moment. Hence The Lord says `the deluded world knows Me not as they are steeped in the illusion born out of threefold Gunas' just as the waves shield the ocean from the visionary perception.
vedaaham samateetaani vartamaanaani chaarjuna
bhavishyaani cha bhootani maam tu veda na kashchana // 7.26 //
I know O Arjuna, the beings of the past, the present and the future but no one knows Me.
Because of the Consciousness Principle, only the living beings are aware of the entire field of the mind and the intellect. Consciousness or the Self is the same everywhere which illumines the respective thoughts and ideas of the individual. Thus The Lord or the Self is omniscient i.e. all-knowing. Hence He says `I know the beings of the whole past, of the present and of the future.'
The concept of awareness is eternal because It illumined the objects before, is illumining now and will be doing so in future. It is beginningless and endless. Although the Self activates the mind and the intellect neither of them can perceive, feel or comprehend the Self. Hence The Lord says although He knows everything and everyone at all times and places `none knows Him.'