Question: What is the cause of ignorance?

Sri Chinmoy: The cause of ignorance is our fondness for limitations. Although we say we want to be vast, we get real pleasure in separating ourselves from others. We always have a sense of demarcation, partition. We speak about peace, universal peace, but every day it is “I” and “Mine”. "I am for myself and I do not need anybody. I want to stay with myself. I will have nothing to do with you. Don't bother me." Ignorance comes when we bind ourselves consciously. But when we expand ourselves and feel the universe itself as our home, when we feel that we are for all and of all, then there is no ignorance. Ignorance comes into the picture only when we limit and bind ourselves and feel that this limitation is our real satisfaction. If we can feel real satisfaction lies only in our self-expansion, then there is no ignorance.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Fifty Freedom-Boats to One Golden Shore, part 1, Sri Chinmoy Centre, New York, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ffb_1