The Moksha Gita : Swami Sivananda // Commentary : Chapter 2 -4. Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday, February 01, 2023. 07:00.

The Moksha Gita : Swami Sivananda

Commentary  :  Chapter 2: The Nature of Brahman -4. Swami Krishnananda.

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7. That which is neither subtle nor dense, which has neither caste nor name, which is immutable, immortal and bodiless, which is beyond the reach of mind and speech, that should be understood as Brahman.

Brahman is neither subtle nor dense, for subtlety and density are qualities in relation to something else and not parts of Eternal Nature. That which alone exists cannot be said to have any distinguishable quality for quality is the object of the mental functions. Caste and name are employed to distinguish personalities by their characters and actions, but where one alone is such distinctions lose their validity.

Mutation marks out the transient nature of a thing and the Supreme Brahman must therefore be Immutable. Mutability is the tendency or effort to become something else in order to obtain an unattained state or object to fill the gap of imperfection in any relative individual. But Brahman wants nothing at all and is perfect in itself necessitating no addition or subtraction. It is immortal, for mortality again is the sign of relativity which limits the Self-existent nature of the Self. Birthless and deathless, changeless and fearless is Brahman, for It is the Eternal Home of all that changes and perishes. Everything comes from it, lives in it and re-enters into it like rivers into the Ocean. Therefore, the everlasting Being, the Reality that endures without altering itself at any time, is of the same essence throughout.

It is bodiless, because body belongs to individual entities and not to the Absolute. Anything that possesses a body must one day perish, but the Absolute is imperishable and so must be bodiless. Mind and speech are forces that run externally and the Absolute therefore cannot be reached by them. All externalising tendencies try to turn their backs to Truth and so they are lost in darkness. Speech is only mind expressed and so is less powerful than mind and mind again is an objectifying force and therefore cannot comprehend Absoluteness.

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8. Brahman is distinct from the gross, subtle and causal bodies. He is the soul of all. He is the Inner Ruler of all. He is eternally free. He is without action, and without motion.

The three bodies are the layers of unconsciousness that envelop the Light of the glorious Self. The causal body is the immediate and the subtlest and hence the most powerful of the layers of ignorance. It is the state of forgetfulness of the Self, where there is darkness and blindness of the soul, and the soul is left there in a state of unconsciousness of the absolute nature of itself. The second sheath is the intensified form of the first, the subtle body, where there is distraction in addition to the ignorance of the causal sheath, a presentation of untruth over and above the forgetfulness of the Reality. The third is the grossest materialisation of the imaginative consciousness where it is thickened to flesh and bone and is completely cut off from the rest of existence. The individual hypnotises itself through intense imagination into the belief that this distinguished body is its essential nature and suffers the acute pangs of separation from Truth. Life on earth is only this drama of the misery of the individual egos.

But Brahman is untouched by imaginative separateness. It is the Substratum of all phenomenal play and the world-orbs roll in it like bubbles in the vast ocean. It is the Inner Controller of all changing individuals and rests in its eternal repose indifferent to the shadowy appearance of universes and individuals. It is eternally free and can be bound by none, not even by motion and action, for motion and action are directed towards an unattained goal, but Brahman has no goal to attain and so no purpose to move and act. It is the majesty of Self-sufficiency, Perfection and utter Truth, beyond which there is nothing. It is the Be-all and End-all of everything. When that is attained, everything is attained.

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To be continued

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