अनन्दा नाम ते लोका अन्धेन तमसावृताः ।
तांस्ते प्रेत्याभिगच्छन्त्यविद्वांसोऽबुधो जनाः ॥ ११ ॥anandā nāma te lokā andhena tamasāvṛtāḥ |
tāṃste pretyābhigacchantyavidvāṃso’budho janāḥ || 11 ||11. Miserable are those worlds enveloped by (that) blinding darkness (ignorance). To them, after death, go those people who are ignorant and unwise.
What is the harm if they enter into the darkness that obstructs one’s vision? This is being answered: Miserable are those worlds enveloped by that blinding darkness which obstructs one’s vision; that is, they are the province of that darkness of ignorance. To them, after death, go—who?—those people who are ignorant. The word ‘people’ means common folk, or those subject to repeated births. Will only ignorance in general take one there? No, they must be unwise (Abudh) too. The word is formed from the root ‘budh,’ meaning, to know, by the addition of the suffix ‘kvip’; that is, devoid of the knowledge of the Self.
Sri Ramakrishna Says —
PRANKRISHNA: “Sir, what is the nature of the life after death?”
MASTER: “Keshab Sen also asked that question. As long as a man remains ignorant, that is to say, as long as he has not realised God, so long will he be born. But after attaining Knowledge he will not have to come back to this earth or to any other plane of existence.
“The potter puts his pots in the sun to dry. Haven’t you noticed that among them there are both baked and unbaked ones? When a cow happens to walk over them, some of the pots get broken to pieces. The broken pots that are already baked, the potter throws away, since they are of no more use to him. But the soft ones, though broken, he gathers up. He makes them into a lump and out of this forms new pots. In the same way, so long as a man has not realised God, he will have to come back to the Potter’s hand, that is, he will have to be born again and again.
“What is the use of sowing a boiled paddy grain? It will never bring forth a shoot. Likewise, if a man is boiled in the fire of Knowledge, he will not be used for new creation. He is liberated.
“According to the Puranas, the bhakta and the Bhagavan are two separate entities. ‘I’ am one and ‘You’ are another. The body is a plate, as it were, containing the water of mind, intelligence, and ego. Brahman is like the sun. It is reflected in the water. Therefore the devotee sees the divine form.
“According to the Vedanta, Brahman alone is real and all else is maya, dreamlike and unsubstantial. The ego, like a stick, lies across the Ocean of Satchidananda. (To M.) Listen to what I am saying. When this ego is taken away, there remains only one undivided Ocean of Satchidananda. But as long as the stick of ego remains, there is an appearance of two: here is one part of the water and there another part. Attaining the Knowledge of Brahman one is established in samadhi. Then the ego is effaced.
“But Sankaracharya retained the ‘ego of Knowledge’ in order to teach men.
(To Prankrishna) But there are signs that distinguish the man of Knowledge. Some people think they have Knowledge. What are the characteristics of Knowledge? A jnani cannot injure anybody. He becomes like a child. If a steel sword touches the philosopher’s stone, it is transformed into gold. Gold can never cut. It may seem from the outside that a jnani also has anger or egotism, but in reality he has no such thing. (Source: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna)