All of us recall, upon waking up, that during deep sleep we knew nothing at all. But even when awake, while claiming so much scientific and practically useful knowledge about the material world, each of us, if honest, must confess: “I don’t know myself.” In this lecture, a contemporary philosophical analysis will be attempted of the intriguing Advaita Vedanta phenomenology of this common ignorance about the self as a positive ignorance (avidya) not just an absence of knowledge. Is the Self best known as unknown?

Arindam Chakrabarti is an Indian philosopher who is a professor of philosophy at Ashoka University, India. He is the disciple of Sri Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath. He earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Calcutta in 1976 and 1978, respectively. He completed DPhil at Oxford University in 1982, under the supervision of Sir Peter Strawson and Michael Dummett.

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Vedanta is one of the world’s most ancient religious philosophies and one of its broadest. Based on the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India, Vedanta affirms the oneness of existence, the divinity of the soul, and the harmony of religions.

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Vedanta Society of New York is affiliated with the Ramakrishna Order of India. In fact, this is the Order's first Center started by Swami Vivekananda, in 1894. It was a historic event, for the seed of the world-wide Ramakrishna Movement was sown here in New York over a century ago. Swami Sarvapriyananda is the present Resident Minister and Spiritual Leader of the Vedanta Society of New York.