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the Self is other than thesethree conditioned bodies."(14)Perceptive instruments (mind, intellect, senses) and objects ofperception are required for experience. Before experience is possible,therefore, two events have happened - one macrocosmic (the materialuniverse has been projected), and the other microcosmic (the perceptiveinstruments have evolved), the interaction between them constituting anexperience, the basis of time. Actually, time begins when the thirdperception/experience occurs, being the interval between the first and thesecond seen from the third. These two events, the projection of the universeand the evolution of the perceptive instruments by the conscious beings, arethe result of a preceding non-event or Ignorance. Hence Ignorance, existingout of time, is causal and beginingless.From a spiritual viewpoint, Ignorance means non-apprehension of theSelf or Reality, not lack of education or intelligence. If we fail to“experience” the timeless Self we take our experience of the mind's timeboundprojections as reality, suffering and enjoying accordingly.The purpose of Vedanta is to give knowledge of Reality - one's Self.Ignorance, intellect, and the concept of time are not real, because they don'texist forever and in all states of consciousness. Where is time and thought inthe causal state? Nor do they exist in the Self. Because it is too subtle to beperceived by the Subtle Body, the Causal Body, can only be inferred. To askthe subtle body to know the causal body, except inferentially, is like askingthe eyes to see the mind.Ignorance exists and doesn't exist. From the Self's absolute point ofview it doesn't exist (just as mirage water doesn't exist from the sand's)though it is perceived to exist from the ego's. How can we describesomething that neither exists nor doesn't exist?Finally, Ignorance is causal, the source and origin of false perceptionand therefore action. 35 Because the scorching desert sands aren’t seen forwhat they are, they seem to be covered with water. The inability to perceiveReality, the Self, allows us to project the vast superstructure of thought,feeling, memory, and action we call life, take it for real, and rush out to findhappiness in it.35 See verse 329