From not knowing, to the knower – How suffering and seeking begins

Today we need to revisit the topic of Panchakleshas (please see this earlier article). As a quick reminder, the, Panchakleshas are a list of progressive distortions in our perception that lead us to suffering. These layers of distortion are progressive. One distortion leads to another, and it progressively grows into a delusion of a separate entity that our minds project as a reality. The result of this delusion is that it leads us into the afflictions of anger, lust, pride, passion, greed and jealousy. This is suffering.

Today we will look at the first two and most important of these progressive distortions that are at the root of this. Avidya (not knowing) and Asmita (contraction). Avidyā (अविद्या) is a Vedic Sanskrit word, and is a compound of “a” and “vidya”, meaning “not vidya”

Let’s look at this a bit closely.

As a newborn comes into this world, the child’s eyes glow in the light with unbridled joy, awe, and complete acceptance of what is. This state of complete unknowing is called Avidya.
The word avidya emerges from the root word ‘vid’. ‘Vid’ means to know. Vidya means ‘known’. The word
Avidya is the opposite of Vidya. It means ‘not knowing’! The child cherishes this state of not knowing. It has no concepts or stories or premonitions. It looks at the world with unconditional perception.

This is pure love. Pure peace. Pure joy.
This is the real state of Avidya. It is a clear, non-judgemental mind and perception.

What happens next is very important. From the above state of not knowing arises a spontaneous and prominent vibration of ‘me’ or ‘I’ in the body. This contracted vibration arises simultaneously with the feeling that something is missing. This can also be described as a ‘something is incomplete or missing’ feeling. This state is called Asmita. This word comes from ‘Smita’, which means expansive. Asmita is the opposite of Smita and loosely means ‘contracted’ or ‘non-expanded’. This ‘I’ or’ me’ feeling starts simultaneously with a need to ‘seek’. This seeking then leads to likes and dislikes for the ‘contracted’ energy of the illusory entity of ‘I’ or ‘me’! This is the first feeling of ‘I know’. This ‘I’ feels like it knows what it is. This is where knowing begins.

Following this, the being is never in peace again. It is always ‘seeking’. Perception always feels incomplete and separate. It’s me versus the universe. This seeking is what we do all our lives. We seek our true state of joy in everything we do. The objects, relationships, & experiences we go after are all with the objective to seek this true state that we have lost. Unfortunately, we will never find that true state of joy in any of the objects, relationships or experiences. The only way out of this is to get rid of the ignorance that we have about perception and reality, and understand this delusion, hence getting rid of the false notion of an “I” or the feeling of seeking.