KNOT OF IGNORANCE

Vedanta seeks to untie the knot of ignorance in us.  Ignorance is when we believe that the empirical self is our true self.  It is our identifying with all things non-Atman.  Our doing this is a mental error not a moral failing, as we might worry.

Ignorance, termed avidya in Vedanta, leads to attachment.  We become attached to our bodies, minds, emotions, and sensations, which in turn leads to craving, wanting to have this, to do that, to be that.

Craving, in turn, leads to frustration, because everything we want to have, want to do, want to be, is time bound, impermanent, ever changing, even the want to want itself.

But then after we've gained everything we want, our satisfaction, we find, is short lived.  We get bored with what we've acquired, or find that it is not what we thought it would be.

The goal of Vedanta is to eliminate all craving, and this comes when we correct the mental mistake of seeing ourselves as our bodies, and the rest of it.  When we've done so, a yearning for God suddenly appears, which carries us down the right path to identification with the Atman and spiritual awakening.