The Moksha Gita : Swami Sivananda // Commentary : Chapter 6.3. - Swami Krishnananda

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Wednesday, March 29, 2023. 07:30.

The Moksha Gita : Swami Sivananda

Chapter 6: The Nature of the Mind - 3.

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5. The enemy of the Atma is the fluctuating mind only. The mind through its power of fluctuation generates countless Vasanas and Sankalpas. Destroy this fluctuating power of the mind through constant Brahma-Vichara.

The Atma or the immortal Self is enveloped by the veil of mentation. The vibration of the mind generates fresh Vasanas and Sankalpas by its forward urge to expand itself info the world of nature. Every thought sends forth such currents of creative influence of the strength proportionate to the intensity of the original affirmation, and these creative urges touch the mental being of the other bodies of the universe in various degrees in accordance with their power of receptivity based on their own categories in the stages of their spiritual evolution. When the mental activity is able to affect even bodies completely separated from its own, it goes without saying that its immediate body is tremendously influenced by it.

The condition of physical health, mental peace, nervous equilibrium, harmonised flow of blood in the body are all dependent on the tranquillity of the inner organ. Every harmful thought poisons the blood of the individual, disturbs the nerves and wrecks the general health. All the diseases of the body are mainly rooted in sin and passion which work the destruction of harmony and purity with enormous vigour. All thoughts of the individual are generally directed to external acquirements or positive injury to other beings or to inordinate affections for objects of love. Such thoughts are against the real good and the growth of the spiritual consciousness and hence they spoil the career of the Jiva by drowning it in the pains of the three kinds of evil influences originating from the self and fattened by the similar actions on it of the rest of the beings of the universe and also the reactions from the heavenly bodies.

Brahmavichara is the remedy for this affliction. It is also called Brahmabhyasa which consists in thinking of Brahman, talking about Brahman, reminding one another of Brahman and resting completely in Brahman throughout. Such kinds of Sadhana for Brahma-Sakshatkara alone can free the Jiva from all sorrow and death.

6. Brahman will not shine when the dualities of the mind are not destroyed. Destroy the dualities. Brahman will shine in its pristine glory.

It is impossible to have the vision of Brahman as long as there is faith in dual existence. The Light of the Self cannot be seen by one who is fast bound to plural and dual life. Even intellectual life cannot make one behold the glorious Brahman, for the intellect functions only on a dual basis. The intellect cannot work with a feeling of total Unity, for thereby, it is trying to arrive at self-destruction. What is inclusive of the cogniser himself cannot be seen by the cognising subject. It would be just like attempting to climb on one's own shoulders. Every method of cognition requires a process of knowing besides the knower and the known. The intellect itself is one of the senses through which the internal psychic organ manifests itself. The fact that intellectuality is excluded from immorality does not refrain it from its being included among the organs of perception.

The highest power of knowing by the individual is in its intellect and that being a slave of the dual reality, it is implied, therefore, that the Jiva, as it is, cannot realise Brahman. It has to divest itself of the clogging psychic becomings and stand up bold and unaided by the senses. When the waves, ripples and bubbles, the rays and the ramifications are embraced as one being, the world becomes no world, the body is no body, relations are no relations and qualities are no qualities.

Since duality is not of the nature of Brahman, it will not shine where there is duality. Dual perception is a refusal to perceive Brahman which is Oneness and since two contradictions cannot exist in the same nature, the experience of Brahman becomes impossible in the pluralistic world. When the sense of two-ness in being is overcome the perceiver and the perceived fuse into a single Unit and that is the realization of Brahman. Even in deep sleep duality does not appear but since duality is in a potential state there and is not destroyed, Brahman cannot be realised in the deep sleep state. Unity attended with Consciousness is the Reality. Glimpses of this state are experienced in selfless contemplation and activity of pure and spiritual determination. The joy of self-abandonment cannot be compared with any joy derived from egoistic enjoyments.

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To be continued

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