The Moksha Gita : Swami Sivananda // Commentary : Chapter 6.4. - Swami Krishnananda.

Swami Chinmayananda :

To waste our precious lifetime in the pursuit of all non-essentials and never taking up seriously the study of the greatest of sciences, which alone can save man from the thraldom of imperfections, is being condemned in this verse of Bhaja Govindam. 

While living here, man’s greatest endeavour is to understand and master the secret of life, the Reality behind it and to gain his perfect identification with It. 

He must be able to meet death not as a moment of utter annihilation, but as a springboard to rocket himself into an eternal Existence, peaceful and divine.

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Sunday, April 02, 2023. 06:30.

The Moksha Gita : Swami Sivananda

Chapter 6: The Nature of the Mind - 4.

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7. Ahamkara which is the source of all troubles has its seat in the mind. Annihilation of egoism will bring about destruction of the mind and annihilation of the mind will cause destruction of egoism.

Ahamkara or egoism is the main sense of the Jiva. It is the master-manipulator of diverse life. The ego is the hardening or the concretising of the universal consciousness at a point in space. It is formed of the stuff of arrogating itself and excluding all else from being. Ahamkara need not necessarily be taken to mean pride merely, but it is essentially the feeling of "I am" or self-awareness. This self-consciousness is the pivot of the rotation of the incessant revelation and the withdrawal of self-asserting forces thrown out by the ego by its powerful spells of thought. The whole universe is in fact this magical incantation of the sense of the ego which has at its background the ocean of the mind.

The ego is a monad in absolute consciousness. It strongly desires to express itself and this power of expression creates the appearance of space, time, sound, touch, colour, taste and smell in limitless being. The origin of the world is the desire to egotise in opposition to the Self. The grosser the ego-manifestation, the more real appears the world and the farther is the Jiva from the reality.

The ego or the individuality does not consist in being a simple spiritual entity or a soul but in being a mind which is a peculiar mode of the Supreme Brahman determined by a special movement or will. This self-same ego is called by various names when it performs different functions. Buddhi, Ahamkara, Chitta, Manas, Karma, Vasana. Sankalpa, Kalpana, Bhavana, Prakriti, Shakti, are all the appearances of the different forces which manifest themselves from the root of individuality in order to fulfil certain particularised conditions of self-existence.

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The ego and the mind are related to one another as the source and the root. They are in a sense the same power viewed from different points of view. This power is like a wave in the Ocean of the Absolute. It is the impulse to create that causes the appearance of the ego and this will to manifest forms is cast all over in all egos each of which in its own way takes part in the scheme of creation. This creative impulse should be checked and turned inward to effect Self-Illumination or Realization of Brahman.

8. The ideas of 'mine' and 'thine' are only the creation of the mind. If the mind is destroyed through Vichara, these ideas will vanish. Destruction of the mind alone is Moksha.

"I", "Mine", "Thine", and such other ideas are based on the belief in a multiple universe. The intensity of these ideas differs in the various degrees of ignorance and knowledge that characterise the individuals. There are seven grades of ignorance and seven grades of knowledge. These fourteen stages of evolution are dominated by fourteen degrees of nescience which hide the Reality little by little increasing as the darkness becomes thicker and the intelligence more obscured. The Sadhana that is practised to remove this ignorance should consist in a gradual unveiling of the Self through systematic self-restraint and abstraction. The ideas which reign over the mind are its own offshoots which later on gain independence over its natural quiescent state, and act like irremovable obstructions on the path.

The destruction of the ego is the destruction of the mind, and it is done through the practice of Yoga. Yoga is a process running along two lines, namely, the denial of individuality and the affirmation of the Self. The ego or the individuality does not consist only of intellect but also of feeling and activity. The practice of Yoga, therefore, is done through three aspects: Intellectual assertion and conviction of one's not being an ego but the Absolute Brahman, negation of desire, infatuation and attachment, etc., and practice in stopping the ceaseless functioning of the vital current or Prana which does the activity of life by its rising and setting. These methods bring moments of rest to the psychic activity which corresponds to the moment of rest in consciousness, however little it may be. This long practice brings permanent rest of mental activity and opens the door of intuition.

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When Sadhana is practised – be it of any particular aspect of self-transformation – the one important point to be borne in mind is the negation of the ego. It is not formal practice of routines and traditional rules that can liberate the individual but methods to pacify the egoism through common-sense and understanding. Yoga is completely an inward process, for it is not the body that is the hindrance to Absolute Independence but the mind. Any physical practice done to achieve Spiritual Perfection should be coupled with inward detachment and love for the Eternal. The yearning to catch the Infinite Being directs all the emotions to the Fullness of Existence and thus undermines the flinty egoism.

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To be continued

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