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Avidya means that conception, contrary to reality, by which permanency, and so on, are ascribed to what is momentary, and so on. And from that again avidya, and the whole series as described; so that there is an endlessly revolving cycle, in which avidya, and so on, are in turn the causes of the links succeeding them.
Knowledge produced by texts such as 'Thou art that' does not put an end to bondage, because it is produced by texts which are the fictitious product of avidya; or because it is itself of the nature of avidya; or because it has for its abode knowing subjects, who are mere creatures of avidya; or because it is the product of a process of study which depends on teachers who are the mere creatures of avidya; it is thus no better than knowledge resting on texts teaching how bondage is to be put an end to, which one might have heard in a dream.
When our mind is cleansed from the dross of matter, then alone can we behold the vast, radiant, subtle, ever-pure and spotless Self, the true basis of our existence. By Vidya one end is attained; by Avidya, another. Thus we have heard from the wise men who taught this. He who knows at the same time both Vidya and Avidya, crosses over death by Avidya and attains immortality through Vidya.
It is only when the avidya is removed that this very self comes to us with a wealth which is priceless. When we transfer back these forms into that original joy, which is love, then we cash them in the bank and we find their truth.
MAYA or AVIDYA can never be destroyed through intellectual conviction or analysis, but solely through attaining the interior state of NIRBIKALPA SAMADHI. The Old Testament prophets, and seers of all lands and ages, spoke from that state of consciousness. Among the trillion mysteries of the cosmos, the most phenomenal is light.
To be rescued from this fetter of words we must rid ourselves of the avidya, our ignorance, and then our mind will find its freedom in the inner idea. But it would be foolish to say that our ignorance of the language can be dispelled only by the destruction of the words.
You have further maintained 'Through me only all bodies are animated by a Self; they are the fictitious creations of my avidya; I alone constitute the whole aggregate of intelligent subjects, and, on the basis of these averments, have attempted to prove the oneness of the Ego.
But if Brahman itself constitutes the imperfection, then Brahman is the basis of the appearance of a world, and it is gratuitous to assume an additional avidya to account for the vorld. Moreover, as Brahman is eternal, it would follow from this hypothesis that no release could ever take place.
If, therefore, we should assume that of states of consciousness which are limited to this double form, the object can be something which is neither existing nor non-existing, then anything whatever might be the object of any state of consciousness whatever. For this avidya is apprehended through Perception as well as Inference.
We, moreover, must ask the following question: 'Is this indistinctness which you consider an effect of avidya put an end to by the rise of true knowledge or not? On the latter alternative there would be no final release. In the former case we have to ask of what nature Reality is. If it does, there is no room whatever either for indistinctness the effect of avidya, or for its cessation.
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