Q139. What keeps people in ignorance?

Not being open minded, high personal ego, bad association, lack of proper knowledge and understanding, keeps people in ignorance. Arjuna acquired the knowledge of the Bhagavad-Gita to overcome his confused state. When Maharaj Pariksit was told he had 7 days to live, he acquired the knowledge of the SrimadBhagavatam to make his consciousness pure before his death. It’s the knowledge in the Vedic scriptures that will give you knowledge of God, and the knowledge to get through this miserable material life. Which will save you from sinful activities and make your consciousness pure. “Just as a blazing fire turns firewood to ashes. Knowledge burns all reactions to material actions.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita 4.37) All negative qualities, such as lust, anger, violence, hatred, and greed, are nothing but a manifestation of ignorance. The difference between a good doctor and an average one is that the good doctor will have more knowledge and understanding. A good doctor can be useful, but the average doctor is useless in many cases. Ignorance means lack of knowledge or improper knowledge or incomplete knowledge. Ignorant people are easy target for deception by the deceivers. The deceivers are also in ignorance, but they are in denial of the truth and have very high ego. They will not question what they are taught, they will accept blindly. Ignorance will lead to being deceived applies in religious ideologies, social relationships, and business relationships. “But those, who, out of envy, do not follow these teachings of Mine, are devoid of all good sense. Know such men as completely ignorant and doomed to ruination.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita 3.32)