The Moksha Gita : Swami Sivananda // Commentary : Chapter 7.1 - Swami Krishnananda.

Swami Chinmayananda :

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Thursday, April 13, 2023. 06:30.

The Moksha Gita : Swami Sivananda

Chapter 7: The Process of Sadhana -1.

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1. The Guru said: As fire is concealed by ashes, sword by the scabbard, sun by the clouds, foetus by the amnion, rubies by the earth, mattress by the bed sheet, so also, Brahman is concealed by flesh and bones.

The Eternal Brahman is concealed by flesh and bones. The appearance of the body hides away the Reality. Truth is covered by a golden vessel. The sun is very big in size, much bigger than the whole earth itself, but a finger over the eyes renders such a sun invisible. Brahman is Truth, Knowledge, Infinity, but a tiny force of Avidya which covers the self makes the entire Brahman imperceptible and even makes it to be felt as non-existing. The removal of the finger makes one behold the glorious sun. The eradication of thought allows one to experience the Infinite Reality.

The perception of the unreality of the visible universe and everything which cannot be Brahman is one of the methods to seek the oneness of the self with Brahman or the Absolute. Everything being Brahman, there is nothing real in itself anywhere. When what is unreal is removed from the mind, then, what remains must be the Real. If all that is multiple, physical and dual is false, the remainder should be the unity of the Ekarasa-Satchidananda. Matter is perceived to be Spirit appearing and the perception of the duality of Prakriti ant Purusha is melted into the oneness of Kevala Asti alone where the One that is Santam, Sivam and Advaitam hails supreme. How can there be two entities, Prakriti and Purusha? Eternal duality of the Sankhyas is incorrect, far Prakriti is a shadow of the Substance of Brahman. What appears and what is are not two beings but only the One mistaken to be two. The Reality and its shadow are taken as one Chidghana, the aspirant after Brahman sees no shadow, he sees Brahman only.

Objects other than the Self are a non entity and the difference between the subject and the object is a falsity. The intellectual conviction is superseded by a tremendous touch of the supersensual light, and the dark corner of the earth is illumined by the splendour of the Divine Being. Denial of the creative force of the surface consciousness is a dissolving power which disintegrates individuality at a stroke.

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2, 3, 4. If you remove the ash you can perceive the fire; if the clouds are dispersed you can cognise the sun; if you remove the scabbard you can behold the sword; if you remove the bed-sheet you can see the mattress. Even so, if the veil of ignorance which conceals the Brahman is removed by knowledge of Brahman, you can directly cognise the Self-luminous Brahman.

The veil of ignorance is to be pierced through and through, and this act consists in disbelieving limitation and finitude and dissolving them in the menstruum of Brahman which is the Freedom of Infinitude. The Spirit or the Self should be abstracted and separated from the objective factors of empirical experience and thus experienced its nature where the identity of the Atman and Brahman is affirmed. The Absolute Brahman transcends both objectivity and subjectivity, for both conceptions are interdependent and therefore involve relations. The Self is hence affirmed to be free from both subjectivity and objectivity. All desires, likes and dislikes, drop down from the personality and the individual melts into the Ocean of Ananta, Paripoorna, Satchidananda.

In the light of the all-ness of Brahman the great denial of the world ensues. The mind in its static aspect is Brahman itself, but in its dynamic aspect appears as the world. The knowledge of this fact withdraws the faith in the external universe into the Bhuma, where nothing else is. The citadel of individuality is broken by the invasion of the Absolute. The life of misery and risk in the world is stepped over only through the sacrifice of the separate self. One who gives away the all, gets the All. The charity of the self brings the fruit of Absoluteness and Immortality. The complete possession of everything that exists is possible only by effacing oneself completely. The person who ties his thoughts to that which is beyond the ego loses his ego. The self must be lost if the Self is to be gained. The removing of the veil is the removing of one's own personality, and the higher Truth is realised in proportion to the extent to which the lower individuality is suppressed. A veritable suicide of the ego is what is meant by the dissolution of personality in Eternity. It is like cutting the branch of a tree by sitting on that branch itself. The slow self-transcendence practised through Yoga and Wisdom leads the aspirant to the Heart of Bliss where his thirst is quenched for ever and the hunger of ages appeased!

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To be continued

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