“Thought is the grandchild of ignorance”
This is something that Swami Venkatesananda says in a talk, here.
“Thought is the grandchild of ignorance.” What can it mean?
You are asking yourself questions, and with the same mechanism, thought, you attempt to answer them.
Thought is the child of the mind. The mind gives birth to thought.
But who is the parent of the mind?
You are.
Not you in your essence, but what you believe yourself to be.
The separate self is the parent of the mind, the mind is its child. The ego-self is born and brings forth the mind with its progeny of thoughts.
“‘I don’t know’ is the nature of the mind.”
Ignorance and the ego-self are the same. They are expressions of the same movement within the infinite.
Therefore, thought truly is the grandchild of ignorance.
How is this ego-self born within the infinite? How could it be?
This is a fruitful question to pursue. Before thought, before mind, before “I” — what is there?
The answer will suprise you!
