AVIDYĀ - A-vidyā is non-knowing, ignorance, but not in the sense commonly given to this word, rather in the philosophical-religious sense of ignorance of the Supreme Truths, the knowledge (vidyā) of which confers liberation from rebirth, the cause of suffering. One may be versed in every art and discipline, yet still remain in the state of ignorance or a., with respect to liberating gnosis. This gnosis is not always the same, because it depends on the principles that serve as the basis of the various religions and philosophies of ancient India. In the Sāṃkhya system (v. BRAMANESIMO) a. consists in attributing to the spirit the activity of matter, in confusing the soul with the body. In Yoga (v.) a. has four forms: supposing to be eternal what is not, such as dwelling in heaven; considering pure what is impure, such as the body; mistaking for joy what is suffering, such as the objects of the senses; believing oneself (ātman) to be what one is not. In systematic Vedānta a. is the innate disposition to confuse the soul with its upādhi (conditions): body, psychic apparatus and harman, of which only the body dissolves at death, while the other upādhi accompany the soul into another existence. The negative concept of a. as non-knowing acquires, in Vedānta, a positive value when it refers to empirical science, considered a false knowledge because it speaks of a manifold universe while only Brahman-ātman exists and all the rest is illusion (māyā). In original Buddhism avijjā = a. is the ignorance of the four fundamental truths, revealed by the Buddha in the sermon at Benares.
Ferdinando Belloni Filippi