Samayasara - by Acharya Kundakunda: Delusion, The Root Of All Evils, Is Beginningless

uvaogassa aṇāῑ pariṇāṃā tiṇṇi mohajuttassa.
 micchattaṃ aṇṇāṇaṃ aviradibhāvo ya ṇādavvo..21

(Ṇādavvo) Know that (mohajuttassa uvaogassa) the deluded consciousness reveals itself by (tiṇṇi aṇāῑ pariṇāṃā) three beginningless modes viz., (micchattaṃ) perverted world-view (aṇṇāṇaṃ) perverted knowledge (ya aviradibhāva) and perverted conduct (non-abstinence).

Annotations:

Delusion is the root of all evils. It is the function of darśana-moha karma to delude the soul and misguide it. Many wrong and perverted notions about truth and reality arise due to its influence. It vitiates the whole outlook and is responsible for the wrong assessment of ultimate values. Delusion expresses itself in three types of perversities viz., perverse world-view (mithyā darśana), perverse knowledge (mithyā jñāna) and perverse conduct (mithyā cāritra). Non-abstinence is the practical form of perverse conduct and is the function of cāritramoha karma. The worldly existence is due to the joint working of these three. Delusion has no beginning in time. Why is a soul afflicted with, it is a question too difficult to answer or rather it is too much to ask, because it is a question of fact and not of reason. And because it is coeval with the soul it cannot be set down to an adventitious condition which is the usual way of solving problems. In one way, the question is as absurd as the question "Why should the soul exist"? The existence of the self is an ultimate fact, and the existence of delusion, coeval with it, is equally an ultimate fact to which no question of origination can be relevant. The delusion is there and it is not that we do not know its nature. Its nature and functions are well known. We also know its conditions. We do not know the beginning because it has no beginning.

Perverse view or wrong world-view vitiates the whole outlook, and consequently whatever knowledge and conduct there is, becomes vitiated (mithyā). In other words, the perversity of knowledge and conduct depends upon the perversity of world-view. The perverse world-view (mithyā darśana) defiles, as it were, the very fibre of the soul and it is but natural that all the psychical functions should be defiled. Conversely purification of the world-view (darśana), therefore, is regarded as the sine quâ non of the purification of the knowledge and conduct. It should be borne in mind that the term 'ajñāna’ here does not mean 'ignorance' or 'lack of knowledge' but 'perverted knowledge' (mithyā jñāna). Even as the knowledge of a mad man is necessarily ajñāna, although by chance it hits sometimes upon the truth, exactly so the knowledge of one whose soul is vitiated by mithyā darśana (perverse world-view) is of necessity ajñāna in spite of its empirical validity by accident.^[1]