Two states, extreme in their own way, which are often discussed on the spiritual path: the state of WISDOM and the state of FOOLISHNESS (II)

By eminent yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru

In the following presentation, we will talk about these states one by one and reveal some of their important secrets. We hope that all these aspects will be of real use to you, especially to those of you who are on a spiritual path and practice yoga with enthusiasm and dedication.

Read the first part of the article

The state of wisdom implies a profound Self-knowledge, but also the discovery of God through direct inner experience. Wisdom enables the development of a transcendental perspective on God’s Creation and on the Macrocosm.

A true state of wisdom gives rise to an authentic, profoundly revolutionary and rapidly transformative philosophy, which is of immense benefit for the enthusiastic and sincere aspirant who seeks concrete, wise methods of beneficial action, in a manner that is Godly integrated into the mysterious harmony of nature.

All this, however, is necessary to be accompanied by a constant, strong aspiration, focused especially in the direction of eminently beneficial inner transformation.

Such a harmonious, creative inner transformation then becomes a means of conquering and rapidly transforming the surrounding world and, at the same time, enables the wise person, who exudes a charisma that is often extraordinary, to compassionately inspire those with whom they come into contact.

Through the practice of both Yoga and Tantra Yoga, wisdom is no longer the preserve of certain older people who are characterized by an extraordinary sense of relativity and who know in advance the consequences of various actions that other people take. Some people say, “Life makes you wise.” However, even in young yogis, it is possible and recommended that wisdom be awakened, energized, and amplified, in close connection with the way they are able to learn and assimilate a great deal, both from their own spiritual experience and from that of others, using certain secret tantric methods for this purpose (such as, for example, the one in which the golden elixir mehas amrita is used in a certain way).

The state of wisdom can be awakened gradually and is closely related to the way in which even young people come to appreciate the events and experiences of their lives from an eminently Godly, harmonious, complex, elevated, intuitive, and even supramental perspective.

Wisdom as a state is always an essential virtue, which proves to be both gnoseological and moral.

Practical wisdom is always implicit in the very purpose of both the Yoga system and the Tantra Yoga system, and it also aims at the inner revelation of God’s existence. Moreover, practical wisdom makes it possible to know from a completely different, superior, essential perspective the fundamental Godly Laws of the Macrocosm, which express the perfect Godly Intelligence, harmoniously reflected by the Good God in the entire Manifestation.

Practical wisdom facilitates the accomplishment of any beneficial action in a manner that is appropriate to this higher level that has been attained.

In ancient times, the concept of wisdom also referred to a state of complete balance of personality, characterized by moderation in everything, implying both perfect self-control and the sublimation of the subtle energies of beneficial passions. And all this was achieved for the benefit of superior knowledge, including supramental one.

All of these lead, through deepening, to a euphoric state of sui generis reconciliation between man and the world. All of these infuse his being with a state of euphoric serenity. All of these make it possible to live in complete unison with God’s will and give a magical Godly meaning to our existence in Manifestation.

The Stoics and Epicureans defined it as the absence of suffering, as the absence of base passions, or as the absence of anxiety and harmful emotions. Attaining and deepening states of Godly wisdom has been and will always be the supreme ideal of the Yoga system, the Tantra Yoga system, but also of any valuable philosophy that has respected eternal Godly values and honoured inspired contemplation.

Such schools of practical wisdom were often spiritual schools, based on the soul-body antinomy and the principle of the ideal self-perfection of the human being, thanks to Godly revelations that were considered to be the only way to transcend the limited being and make it possible to surpass oneself.

The ideal of Godly wisdom experienced as such sometimes had a distinctly secular connotation, as some currents advocated the attainment of complete happiness and even spiritual immortality for humans, which were to be achieved here and now. However, none of this was intended in the spirit of religious transcendentalism.

Subsequently, the original meaning of the concept became obsolete, except in the Yoga and Tantra Yoga systems, and wisdom, as a speculative concept, seems to have as many versions today as there are philosophies.

The ideal of true Godly wisdom in the yogic and tantric understanding of the term is the eminently harmonious, continuous, lively, brilliant, and creative combination of the theory of superior Godly knowledge with everyday existence. It also implies a wise understanding of the supreme necessity that is harmoniously adopted, and on this basis, the goal is to achieve a perfectly controlled inner transformation.

Gradually attaining the state of wisdom requires enthusiastic, detached participation in the prompt realization of the practical ideal of achieving spiritual liberation for every human being.

Attaining the state of wisdom through direct experience makes it easy to overcome limitations of all kinds, as well as the constraints (whether objective or subjective) that slow down spiritual progress, both through the united effort of all wise people and through personal effort aimed at self-improvement and perfection, which aims to achieve the state of deification.

The human being in whom the state of wisdom awakens seeks to make an essential leap from being selfish, petty, and limited to being perfect, full of wisdom, and fully integrated into the Godly harmony of nature.

It can be said that the state of Godly wisdom is an essential quality and, at the same time, a fundamental capacity of the human being that appears and is then deepened through the harmonious integration of sublime and rich Godly spiritual experiences.

The authentic state of wisdom involves a clear, lucid, intuitive, profound, even supramental reflection of the occult realities of the World, of God, in most of His enigmatic facets, both material and spiritual.

In the initial stage, the state of wisdom involves a constant, complete balancing of beneficial desires with existing possibilities.

It awakens and is then deepened through an eminently beneficial, multifaceted process of self-knowledge, which entails an objective appreciation of the world not only through value judgments (which can be affirmative or negative), but especially through the constant exercise of spiritual intuition, common sense, and a creative intelligence of repeated supramental experiences.

In the case of the wise, any form of resignation or the emergence of complacency in inertia, in larval state, in pessimism is excluded.

Achieving and deepening the state of wisdom then requires adopting a clearly superior way of life, involves approaching a clearly superior, Godly way of knowing, and entails a radical transformation, we might say, of the basic perspective on reality, which occurs in particular on the basis of essential knowledge of the causes that provoke events and the effects that are correlated.

Wisdom, as a superior inner state, even an essential one, implies a way of living that is Godly integrated, which does not relate only to immediate demands and does not value them above all else.

The full state of wisdom also implies simplicity, healthy humour, detachment, and a keen sense of the relativity of the mundane, insipid events of life that are experienced.

It is noteworthy that Jung, for example, writes in his work about the archetype of the great sage. The great sages of this planet have been and are endowed with extraordinary paranormal abilities, known in yoga as siddhis.

Wisdom, as a sign of the spiritual perfection of a human being who has embarked on an authentic spiritual path, can be attained and deepened especially through the diligent, enthusiastic, and persevering practice of yoga techniques, but also through certain secret methods that are specific to the ancient Tantra Yoga system.

What is the source of suffering?

The obvious opposites of the state of wisdom are mainly the state of foolishness, but also that of ignorance (avidya). While complete wisdom brings about various extraordinary states of happiness, fulfilment, and harmony, foolishness is the source of suffering, inner blindness, lethargy, complacency in larval state, inertia, and imbalance.

Buddha shared a very suggestive comparison: if, in the case of a four-wheeled cart, we consider the two front wheels to be, depending on the case, either ignorance or foolishness, then the two rear wheels, which come immediately after the front ones and whose movement is inevitable, represent the suffering that follows. Therefore, both ignorance and foolishness are followed, sooner or later, by corresponding states of suffering or pain proportional, in each case, to the magnitude, intensity, and frequency of the unwise choices that were made.

However, it is essential to remember that he who does not know what he urgently needs to know, especially in certain spiritual matters, is an ignorant man. The man who comes to know very well, including theoretically, what he urgently needs to know in certain spiritual matters, but who then behaves and acts every time as if he knew nothing, proves in this way that he is stupid. And thus his constant crass stupidity is confirmed.

Some important aspects regarding the state of ignorance

The state of ignorance is represented in the ancient Eastern tradition of wisdom by the Sanskrit term avidya. This Sanskrit term comes from the Sanskrit root vid, which in English means “to know” or “to see,” to which are added the prefix a, which in English means “non,” and the Sanskrit suffix ya. The original meaning of the Sanskrit verbal root vid is in English “to exist.” Thus, the profound meaning of the Sanskrit term vidya in English is “the state or, in other words, the condition of an aspect or a being as that aspect or being actually is.” In other words: “to know as one ought to know in depth.”

Avidya is an important concept in the ancient spiritual doctrine of the Vedanta system, referring to the deprivation of knowledge of one’s own essential, immortal nature, but also of the reality that causes ignorance and confusion to arise and persist both in the inner personal universe and in the material and astral universes that exist within the Macrocosm.

At the personal level, ignorance hinders human beings from clearly discerning what is permanent from what is ephemeral, from distinguishing essential godly reality from appearances. At the macrocosmic level, this is the universal hypnotic illusion, maya.

The term ignorance is synonymous with ajnana and generally denotes unawareness or, more precisely, spiritual ignorance. In the Yoga Sutra, the Sanskrit term avidya is defined as the way of looking at and considering that what is eternal, Godly, pure, blissful, and connected to the Immortal Godly Self, Atman, is something ephemeral, illusory, impure, causes suffering, and is not connected to the Immortal Godly Self, Atman.

Increased avidya is always the main cause of the renewed need for reincarnation. It manifests itself not only as a simple absence of spiritual knowledge (vidya), but also as a partially true, distorted perception of reality, just as an enemy is not merely an absent friend.

The state of ignorance is, in fact, the general framework for the manifestation of all aspects that are characteristic of erroneous knowledge (viparyaya). Ignorance (avidya) is that state in which the specific vibrations of the mental sheath (manomaya kosha) are disturbed by various interferences with the conditioning of the subtle tattva energies that exist in the aura of the human being in question, thus making it obvious that these conditioning and limitations are what produce false appearances.

(to be continued)

 

yogaesoteric
January 22, 2026

 

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