Patanjali Yoga sutra —2.26॥ विवेकख्यातिरविप्लवा हानोपायः ॥

vivekakhyātiraviplavā hānopāyaḥ॥

aviplava ( Steady or balanced) vivekakhyāti (Ability for insightful wisdom to distinguish Sat from asat, eternal from the transient) is the only effective means to eradicate ignorance.

A monkey was picking out the fish one by one from a river and vigilantly keeping them on the bank. Surprised at this, other monkey asked — ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ The first monkey said, ‘I am saving the fish from being drowned in the water’. Height of ignorance, aviveka, ajñāna!

Aviveka or ajñāna is the inability to discriminate what is Sat and what is Asat, what is sentient and what is insentient, what is jaḍa and what is cetana. Inability to understand the true nature of the object and that of the Subject. A classic example in our Vedānta is the mistaken identity of a snake for a rope. One anecdote by śrī Rāmakr̥ṣṇa:

One black blanket/rug like the thing was being swept in a flooded river. A man saw this and thought, ‘Why should I allow that blanket to go waste? Let me collect that’. He jumped into the river, with great difficulty reached that black rug like thing and caught hold of it. Unfortunately, it was a big black bear! What did the bear do? It gave a BEAR-HUG! Our man realized his mistake, but it was too late; the bear was not leaving him at all. The people on the banks started shouting at him, ‘leave that blanket, let it go, you come back safe’. Our man said, ‘no it is not leaving me at all. It is holding me tight’. Unfortunately, our man drowned along with the bear (addictions are like this: first we want it; later it wants us; finally it won’t leave us at all!).

What is the way to eradicate ignorance and get knowledge? No short cuts. Sādhana…. sādhana….. sādhana….. sādhana;

vāsudeva Śrīkr̥ṣṇa says, one life sādhana might not be sufficient to acquire aviplava vivekakhyāti:

बहूनां जन्मनामन्ते ज्ञानवान्मां प्रपद्यते।

वासुदेवः सर्वमिति स महात्मा सुदुर्लभः॥गीता ७.१९॥

bahūnāṃ janmanāmante jñānavānmāṃ prapadyate|

vāsudevaḥ sarvamiti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ॥Gītā 7.19॥

At the end of innumerable lives, sādhaka with discriminative wisdom would worship Me as the Supreme Soul (Paramātma) and such great sādhaka is very rare to find (and he is eligible for Kaivalya).