Isha Upanishad | Shloka 10 | English | Results of Vidya and Avidya | anyadevāhurvidyayā

Dear readers,

Welcome back to our blog. Today we will discuss tenth shloka of Isha Upanishad.

Without any further delay, let's jump to the Sloka.

अन्यदेवाहुर्विद्ययाऽन्यदाहुरविद्यया ।
इति शुश्रुम धीराणां ये नस्तद्विचचक्षिरे ॥

“anyadevāhurvidyayā’nyadāhuravidyayā |

iti śuśruma dhīrāṇāṃ ye nastadvicacakṣire ||”

Translation in English:

The result of Vidya is different from the result received by following Avidya. We heard that from wise people who taught us so.

Which results the Shloka is indicating? To understand that let me tell you a story of two brothers Vidyasagar and Sushanta. Vidyasagar was naughty, undisciplined, questioning, curious and an experimenter. Sometimes teachers used to be afraid of his questions because they did not have any answers to them. On the other hand, Sushanta was very calm, disciplined, never questioning and used to follow everything blindly. After growing up Sushanta started working as a clerk in a government office. His bosses loved him for his “Yes, boss” attitude and was always rewarded with promotion or increment. He was happy in his career. But Vidyasagar completed his PhD and started research in the field of Quantum Physics. He did not get immediate success but after long research for a decade almost, he published a paper on his breakthrough research.

Before we explain this Shloka, we recommend you to read previous Shloka to understand Vidya and Avidya and of course other shlokas if you missed them. Links to those videos are given at the end.

Now let’s relate the character of Vidyasagar with Vidya. Relate PhD with highest spiritual knowledge, research as continuous questioning on existence of God, breakthrough as the experiencing Brahman and publishing paper means sharing that knowledge and experience with others in the form of spiritual talks, written books etc.

Sushanta can be seen as Avidya. From his character we can understand he follows everything blindly and he is disciplined. He never asks questions. Followers of Avidya perform rituals with heart and soul. Never question the existence of God. Because of blind faith they sometimes believe in illogical tales and myths. Now relate the working as clerk in a government office to performing same rituals and chanting mantras regularly with perfection and discipline. Here boss is like a fake Guru; because that Guru loves blind faith of his disciple without motivating him to ask questions. Getting promotion means getting more attention from the others because of different stories, sometimes fake, or showing bhakti or performing crazy things to grab others attention etc. But spiritual progression is too far from the reality because Avidya followers are happy in that much only and believe that as truth.

Let me tell you the results of Vidya and Avidya. Some of the positive results of Vidya are like

You will gain knowledge. Your mind will be more logical. Because of that you will have self-belief and confidence. You will not be afraid of anything or anyone in asking questions till the time you are getting a satisfactory answer.

Positive results of Avidya are like

you will be disciplined more. Your faith in God will be stronger. You will always believe in God. Your love and devotion to God will increase. You will start loving and respecting others.

On the other hand because of negative results of Vidya, you will have ego of your knowledge. Sometimes you will be overconfident. You may become arrogant and argumentative. You will stop all the rituals and move away from devotion. You may leave all worldly affairs for renunciation.

Negative results of Avidya will make you blind believer, fake Gurus will take advantage of your blind faith, you will have blind faith in black magic, miracles and myths. You will start believing in stories and mythologies. You will start hating other religious practices because of increasing communal ego. You will run away from knowledge and become illogical and because of that you will lose the questioning ability.

So, you see two opposite sets of results received following Vidya and Avidya. One point to be noted here, following either or both does not guarantee spiritual awakening or liberation or enlightenment. They are just two different paths for the same destination.

The problem the world is facing today is because of the negative results of both Vidya and Avidya. People may agree or disagree but the problems of fake gurus, selling miracles, black magic, hatred in the name of communal brotherhood, disrespect to others’ beliefs, spreading of myths, selling mythologies and stories as true stories are prevalent in society.

The solution to these problems is to remember the goal of Vidya and Avidya which is the same and that is self-awakening, be more respectful to each other's following and take the positive results received from them. Vidhya followers should show empathy to Avidya followers and learn devotion and discipline and Avidya followers should open their mind for knowledge and logic. Remember the double engine of Vidya and Avidya will cover the path faster than either of the engines.

Dear readers, be with us in this journey of Universal Vedanta movement.

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Readers' List

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https://universal-vedanta.blogspot.com/2023/03/isha-upanishad-shloka-09-english-what-is-vidya-what-is-avidya.html

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