ination means nothing more than a
false identification of being with non-being. The forms of ajnana
if they are to be known must be associated with pure consciousness,
and this association means an illusion, superimposition, and
mutual misattribution. But apart from pure consciousness these
cannot be manifested or known, for it is pure consciousness alone
that is self-luminous. Thus when we try to know the ajnana
states in themselves as apart from the atman we fail in a dilemma,
for knowledge means illusory superimposition or illusion, and
when it is not knowledge they evidently cannot be known. Thus
apart from its being a factor in our illusory experience no other
kind of its existence is known to us. If ajnana had been a non-entity
altogether it could never come at all, if it were a positive
entity then it would never cease to be; the ajnana thus is a
mysterious category midway between being and non-being and
undefinable in every way; and it is on account of this that it is
called _tattvanyatvabhyam anirvacya_ or undefinable and undeterminable
either as real or unreal. It is real in the sense that it is

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a necessary postulate of our phenomenal experience and unreal
in its own nature, for apart from its connection with consciousness
it is incomprehensible and undefinable. Its forms even while they
are manifested in consciousness are self-contradictory and incomprehensible
as to their real nature or mutual relation, and
comprehensible only so far as they are manifested in consciousness,
but apart from these no rational conception of them can be
formed. Thus it is impossible to say anything about the ajnana
(for no knowledge of it is possible) save so far as manifested in
consciousness and depending on this the D@r@s@tis@r@s@tivadins asserted
that our experience was inexplicably produced under the influence
of avidya and that beyond that no objective common ground
could be admitted. But though this has the general assent of
Vedanta and is irrefutable in itself, still for the sake of explaining
our common sense view (_pratikarmavyavasatha_) we may
think that we have an objective world before us as the common
field of experience. We can also imagine a scheme of things and
operations by which the phenomenon of our experience may be
interpreted in the light of the Vedanta metaphysics.

The subject can be conceived in three forms: firstly as the
atman, the one highest reality, secondly as jiva or the atman as
limit