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vidyāṁ cāvidyāṁ ca yas
tad vedobhayaṁ saha
avidyayā mṛtyuṁ tīrtvā
vidyayāmṛtam aśnute

SYNONYMS

vidyām—knowledge in fact; ca—and; avidyām—nescience; ca—and; yaḥ—a person who; tat—that; veda—knows; ubhayam—both; saha—simultaneously; avidyayā—by culture of nescience; mṛtyum—repeated death; tīrtvā—transcending; vidyayā—by culture of knowledge; amṛtam—deathlessness; aśnute—enjoys.

TRANSLATION

Only one who simultaneously knows the processes of nescience and transcendental knowledge can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.

PURPORT

We should understand clearly what is knowledge (vidya), what is ignorance and what is nescience (avidya). Cultivation of spiritual realization is vidya, and the lack thereof is ignorance; but development of material knowledge, wealth and power without relationship to spiritual principles and goals is nescience, avidya. When material knowledge and work are dedicated to supporting spiritual culture, then vidya and avidya are in balance, and we can attain the highest purposes of human life. Unfortunate people whose consciousness is conditioned by the material bodily concept of life cannot understand this simple concept. Instead they work very hard trying to establish a permanent settlement for happy life in this world. But material nature forces everyone in this world to taste the bitter sting of death.

No one wants to become old or diseased, or die; that is natural because we are actually eternal spiritual beings. However, the laws of nature and the force of time make everyone with a material body experience the suffering and embarrassment of old age, disease and death. No amount of advancement in material knowledge can solve these problems. Material science may have the power to develop weapons that artificially accelerate the process of death; but it can never give us a cure for old age, disease and death, because everything in this world is temporary.

Ignorant people foolishly try to conquer cruel death by acquisition of material power and advancement of so-called scientific knowledge. Sometimes they undergo severe austerities and penances trying to force God to grant their wishes. They may attain some limited mystic powers, but ultimately they are interested in money, power and women, and they want to enjoy life by becoming immortal. Even the most powerful materialists can never become free from death by their faulty plans. They do not understand that material knowledge and power can never grant immortality. The death of the material body is born along with its birth; therefore all their so-called scientific education and power are useless to prevent it.

tad-arthaṁ kurute karma
yad-baddho yāti saṁsṛtim
yo ’nuyāti dadat kleśam
avidyā-karma-bandhana

“For the sake of the body, which is a source of constant trouble and which follows him because he is bound by ties of ignorance and fruitive activities, he performs various actions which cause him to be subjected to repeated birth and death.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.31.31]

This mantra of Sri Isopanisad instructs us that any attempt to win the struggle for existence by material means is useless. Worse than useless, actually, because the ultimately fruitless material actions we perform according to the nescient schemes of avidya simply deepen our entanglement in the network of material cause and effect, or karma. Everyone in the material world is struggling for existence, not realizing that we are already immortal spiritual living entities. The laws of material nature are so powerful that no one can evade them. The only way to attain a permanent life is to realize our spiritual nature and go back to our real home in the spiritual world.

The path back to Godhead is revealed by the spiritual knowledge of the Esoteric Teaching. Its practical implementation has to be learned from a self-realized soul by a process similar to apprenticeship. To obtain complete transcendental knowledge we must study the sacred teachings from one who has personally realized them. By offering our dedicated service to a fully self-realized Master Teacher, we can become happy in this life, and attain a permanent blissful spiritual life after leaving this material body.

The conditioned living beings have mistakenly accepted this temporary material existence and identity as real because they have forgotten their eternal relationship with God. The living beings cannot be happy in the material world because they are spiritual entities; they can attain happiness only by returning to their spiritual home. Therefore the merciful Lord personally speaks the Esoteric Teaching, and provides other scriptures through His trusted servants, to remind the forgetful human beings of their eternal home in the spiritual world and deliver them from nescience.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead sends His dear eternal servants and eternal associates from the spiritual kingdom to convey this Esoteric Teaching to the beings suffering in the material world. Sometimes the Lord even comes Himself to spread this Teaching, by which we can return to Godhead. The Lord is more concerned than we ourselves to see the constant suffering of His beloved parts and parcels in this material world. Since all living beings are actually spiritual, the miseries of this material world should remind us of our incompatibility with dead matter. Intelligent living entities, understanding these reminders, engage in the culture of transcendental knowledge (vidya). One who does not take advantage of this opportunity for self-realization, squandering his valuable human life on transient material activities (avidya), is considered a complete failure.

The path of advancement of material knowledge for sense gratification simply leads to repeated birth and death in the material world. Actually, the living entity is eternal and spiritual. Birth and death apply only to the material body, the temporary external dress of the spirit soul. Birth and death are like putting on and taking off an external garment. But it is painful because in the process, we identify with this external covering and, forgetting our real self, become attached to a false identity. Foolish people absorbed in the culture of nescience think there is nothing wrong with this cruel process. They repeatedly undergo the same miseries, not learning anything from the harsh experience of material life.

The ignorant living entities in conditioned material consciousness do not know that they have eternal spiritual bodies complete with perfect spiritual senses. In material existence, the original spiritual form of the living entity is covered by the material body and mind. The imperfect material body and senses are perverted reflections of the original pure senses of the spiritual body. Material existence is therefore a diseased condition of the spirit soul. Unrestricted material sense enjoyment is a path leading to ignorance and death. Real sense enjoyment—perfect eternal pleasure—is only possible when we cure the disease of materialism with the medicine of the Esoteric Teaching.

One who is suffering from a serious disease cannot enjoy sense pleasure. He must regain his health before he can experience pleasure again. Advancement of material knowledge without concomitant advancement of spiritual knowledge simply aggravates the material disease. This is a sign of avidya, or nescience. The trend of material civilization is to increase the temperature of the already feverish material condition. Sri Isopanisad warns that we must not follow this dangerous path leading to death. To recover his health, a diseased person should take medicine to reduce his temperature to normal. The aim of human life should not be to increase material sense enjoyment, but to cure the material disease completely, ending the suffering of material existence forever. Therefore the Esoteric Teaching is essential for those who want the highest benefits of human life.

This does not mean that we should neglect the proper care of the body. A doctor treating a feverish disease does not try to reduce the patient's temperature to zero. The culture of spiritual realization requires a sound body and mind; therefore maintenance of the body and mind is required even on the spiritual path. The point here is that optimum spiritual health requires a harmonious balance between material and spiritual culture.

The great Master Teachers of the Esoteric Teaching give us a balanced program of spiritual and material knowledge to correct the misuse of human intelligence for material advancement alone. The Esoteric Teaching is a complete spiritual culture including religion, economic development, sense gratification, and spiritual training ultimately leading to liberation from material existence. Unfortunately, less intelligent people have no interest in religion or liberation. Their principal aim in life is sense gratification, and to achieve it they make plans for economic development. Such misguided materialists think that if religion has any value, it is to assist the economic development required for sense gratification. Thus they maintain some superficial system of religious observance to guarantee sense gratification in this life and even after death in heaven.

But material benefit is not the real purpose of religion. Religion or spiritual life is actually meant for self-realization; we need only enough economic development to maintain a healthy body and mind. Too much economic development leads to unrestricted sense enjoyment, which is poisonous to spiritual advancement. Therefore “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.” [Gospel of Matthew 19:24] All bona fide spiritual authorities agree that this life is not meant for culturing avidya and working hard like an ass just for temporary sense gratification. One should lead a simple but healthy life, and save time and energy for cultivating good intelligence by training the mind to realize vidya.

The path of vidya is most perfectly presented in the Esoteric Teaching, which directs us to dedicate this human life to inquiry into the Absolute Truth. The sincere student of the Esoteric Teaching realizes the Absolute Truth in three stages as Brahman (the eternal spiritual effulgence), Paramatma (the indwelling Supersoul) and finally Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or Kṛṣṇa. The intelligent student of the Absolute Truth attains spiritual knowledge and detachment from material life by following the eighteen principles of the Esoteric Teaching given by Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gita and described in the purport to the previous mantra.

The ultimate purpose of culturing spiritual knowledge is to attain transcendental devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore we encourage everyone to learn the art of devotional service by practicing the principles of spiritual life. The culture of vidya is summarized in the following words:

tasmād ekena manasā
bhagavān sātvatāṁ patiḥ
śrotavyaḥ kīrtitavyaś ca
dhyeyaḥ pūjyaś ca nityadā

“Therefore, with one-pointed attention one should constantly hear about, glorify, remember and worship the Personality of Godhead, who is the protector of the devotees.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.14]

Unless religion, economic development and sense gratification aim for the attainment of devotional service to the Lord, they are all simply different forms of avidya, or nescience, as Sri Isopanisad will emphasize in the following mantras.