Knowledge and Ignorance
दूरमेते विपरीते विषूची
अविद्या या च विद्येति ज्ञाता ।
विद्याभीप्सिनं नचिकेतसं मन्ये
न त्वा कामा बहवोऽलोलुपन्त ॥ ४॥
dūramete viparīte viṣūcī
avidyā yā ca vidyeti jñātā .
vidyābhīpsinaṃ naciketasaṃ manye
na tvā kāmā bahavo’lolupanta .. 4..
Wide apart and leading to different ends are these two: ignorance and what is known as Knowledge. I regard you, O Nachiketa, to be one who desires Knowledge; for even many pleasures could not tempt you away.
Commentary:
The path of the pleasant is called avidya, and the path of the good is called vidya. They are totally different, one from the other. The aims of these two paths, the goals to which these paths will lead, are totally different, one having no connection with the other as night has no connection with daylight or illness has no connection with health. Great indeed is the glory that comes upon the person treading the path of the good. Sorrow will be the outcome of the person who searches after pleasures, treading the wrong path. Yama says, “Now I understand that Nachiketas wants only knowledge and not wealth. Now it is clear to me. All the greatest of joys materially construed have not been capable of tempting you.”
Swami Vivekananda Says —
…there is a sect who advise us to follow God and the world together. They are not sincere, they do not express what they feel in their hearts. What is the teaching of the Great Ones? — “Where there is Rama, there is no Kama; where there is Kama, there Rama is not. Night and day can never exist together.” The voice of the ancient sages proclaim to us, “If you desire to attain God, you will have to renounce Kâma-Kânchana (lust and possession). The Samsâra is unreal, hollow, void of substance. Unless you give it up, you can never reach God, try however you may. If you cannot do that, own that you are weak, but by no means lower the Ideal. Do not cover the corrupting corpse with leaves of gold!” So according to them, if you want to gain spirituality, to attain God, the first thing that you have to do is to give up this playing “hide-and-seek with your ideas”, this dishonesty, this “theft within the chamber of thought”.[Source]