Question: What is the purpose of ignorance?

Sri Chinmoy: In this world there is light, more light, abundant light, boundless light and infinite Light. If we take ignorance as destruction, then we are mistaken. We have to see that what we call ignorance consists of limited light. Even in the darkest night there is some light. Otherwise, we couldn’t exist at all. A child, in comparison to his elder brother, naturally is ignorant; but the child also has some light in him. So what we call ignorance is light in a different form. I as an individual, you as an individual and she as an individual have limited light — let us say infinitesimal light — compared to God, who is infinite Light. But through our prayer and meditation, we are growing into God’s boundless and infinite Light and becoming all that God is and all that God has. This life, as you know, is a kind of game that we play; we call it a cosmic Game. What we call ignorance is nothing short of an experience which God is having in and through us. If we become conscious of the fact that we are only His instruments, then we are not bound by ignorance. We see that there is someone, the Inner Pilot, who is playing His cosmic Game in and through us. If we know that we are mere instruments, then there is no ignorance, there is no light; there is only the Supreme, who is everything. He is the Doer, He is the action, He is the result; He is everything, everything. But if we feel or think that we are doing everything, we are making a Himalayan mistake.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Sri Chinmoy speaks, part 1, Agni Press, 1976
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