Due to ignorance (Lectures, other)

Expressions researched:
"due to" |"ignorance"

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 4, 1972:

Prabhupāda: But ignorance is no excuse. Go on reading. Next. "Generally, one commits sinful activities..."

Pradyumna: "...due to ignorance. But ignorance is no excuse for evading the reaction—sinful activities."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Generally we commit sinful activities knowingly; if not knowingly, unknowingly. Just like we are walking on the street, we are killing so many ants, unknowingly. So that is also sinful activities. You do not know, you do not want to kill the ants, but still, unknowingly, you are killing. When you take water from the jug, there are so many animals encircling the water jug, and when you take water some of them die. When we make paste on the pestle and mortar, spices, so many small insects die. That is going on. So knowingly or unknowingly, we are committing sinful activities. So how to save? That is replied in the Bhagavad-gītā: yajñarthe karma anyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9). If you do not act, or if you do not engage yourself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness business, then you are becoming implicated with so many sinful activities. That is sure. Therefore one has to take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness without fail. Otherwise he'll be entangled, karma-bandhanaḥ. Even if he's doing pious activities, he's becoming entangled in karma-bandhanaḥ, in bondage.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 5, 1972:

So, so long we are tinged with sinful activities, we have to accept different varieties of body, either the body of Lord Brahmā or the body of an ant, indragopa, a small microbic insect, yas tv indragopam athavendram aho sva-karma (Bs. 5.54). From this indragopa, the microscopic insect which is called indragopa insect, from this indragopa insect, to the real Indra, the King of Heaven, everyone is suffering or enjoying—actually it is suffering—the resultant action of his karma. It doesn't matter what kind of body a living entity has got, but the body itself is the symptom, is the sign that one is sinful. This is the conclusion of the śāstra. Because as soon as one is free from sinful activities, at that time, he goes back to home, back to Godhead. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). So our, this material body is achieved due to sinful activities. And sinful activities are performed due to ignorance. Therefore knowledge is essential. Jñāna-vairāgya. These two things are essential in human life: knowledge and renunciation. Renunciation means sinful activities.

The Nectar of Devotion -- Vrndavana, November 5, 1972:

So the soul is within this body, encaged. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe (BG 2.13). Due to ignorance, he is committing... Say, for, in our eating process, we are eating so many things out of ignorance which we should not eat, and creating the sinful reaction. Nānā yoni bhraman kare, kadarya bhakṣaṇa kare. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says things which are not eatables, we eat, and we circumambulate various types of body. Nānā yoni bhraman kare, kadarya bhakṣaṇa kare. Just like the hog is eating stool, kadarya, a very abominable thing, but it is eating. Similarly, many other forms of body. You are eating very abominable things on account of your particular type of body, and this is due to ignorance. And this ignorance is our greatest enemy. The human form of life is meant for acquiring knowledge, not to keep one in ignorance. Tamasi mā jyotir gamaḥ. That is the Vedic injunction. "Don't keep yourself in darkness," darkness of ignorance. But jyotir gamaḥ: "Go to the light." That is the Vedic injunction.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.121-124 -- New York, November 25, 1966:

This māyā has got two kinds of influence: prakṣepātmikā, āvaraṇātmikā. Āvaraṇātmikā means we are already covered by the illusion. Although we are suffering in every step, we are thinking that we are happy. Just, just the day before yesterday the lady, she said, "Oh, the temperature was so high that I could not tolerate it. I could not..." The next moment she said, "Oh, I don't feeling any, any unhappiness." This is called prakṣepātmikā. First things is that I am so much illusioned that I... Just like the animals. They are suffering so much, but they have no knowledge that they are suffering. But human beings, who are above them, they can understand that what sort of suffering there is. A animal, he's, he's being taken to the slaughterhouse, but it does not know due to ignorance. This is called āvaraṇātmikā, covering influence of the material nature. And there is another influence. Suppose one is trying to come out of the covering. Prakṣepātmikā. It throws: "Oh, why you are trying for this? You are very happy. Why do you think, why you are so much pessimistic of this life? Just work hard and enjoy life. That's all."