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Yoga Sutras 2.5

Patanjali, explained by Swami Vivekananda

अनित्याशुचि-दुःखानात्मसु नित्य-शुचि-सुखात्मख्यातिरविद्या ॥

anityāśuci-duḥkhānātmasu nitya-śuci-sukhātmakhyātiravidyā

Ignorance is taking the non-eternal, the impure, the painful, and the non-Self for the eternal, the pure, the happy, and the Atman or Self (respectively).

In plain words: Ignorance means mistaking things the wrong way around. We see what doesn't last as lasting, the impure as pure, the painful as happy, and what isn't our true Self as the Self. The teacher says the main example is thinking "I am just this body."

Yoga Sutras 2.5

Ask the Swami about this

Swami Vivekananda explains

All the different sorts of impressions have one source, ignorance. We have first to learn what ignorance is. All of us think, "I am the body, and not the Self, the pure, the effulgent, the ever blissful," and that is ignorance. We think of man, and see man as body. This is the great delusion.