The Moksha Gita : Swami Sivananda // Commentary : Chapter 4 -1. Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, February 26, 2023. 07:30.

The Moksha Gita : Swami Sivananda

Chapter 4: The Nature of Avidya - 1.

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1. The Guru said: Avidya is Malina-Sattwa. It is the Upadhi or limiting adjunct of Jiva. It is the Karana Sarira of the individual soul. Avidya is Anandamaya Kosha.

Avidya is the same as Maya, but only in relation to the individual. Avidya is Malina-Sattwa or Sattwa polluted by Rajas and Tamas. There is a preponderance of distractive activity and stupor in Avidya. The individual is controlled by Avidya whereas Ishwara is not controlled by Maya. The force of Avidya limits the consciousness to such an extent that the individual is falsely made to believe that its body is the entire truth. Not only the body but even the objects and persons fictitiously connected with the interests of the body are also superimposed on the self and their loss or pain is considered as a real loss to the self itself. There is a terrible degeneration of consciousness in the case of the individual earthly being. It first forgets the Reality; secondly it centres its consciousness in a localised body; thirdly it drags other external bodies also to its self and regards such of the few as are beneficial to its egoistic pleasures as its own self and consequently begins to hate those entities or individuals which are not connected with its interests or which are set in opposition to it. The grosser the form of consciousness, the greater the extent of superimposition, the greater the bondage, the lesser the light and purity, the intenser the passions, the thicker the nescience and the denser the delusion.

The seat of Avidya is the Karana Sarira or the causal body of the soul. There is a dense clouding of Self-awareness due to the agitative vibrations of the intense desire for self-materialisation. The power of the longing to externalise the Self-existence is an unthinkable monstrous agent that at once disturbs the peace of the Self and thrusts out its poisonous fangs of sense-functioning. This is the story of self-imprisonment and acute suffering created by the self-manifestation of egocentric consciousness. The storehouse of the power of illusion and torment is the Anandamaya Kosha or the bliss-sheath of the soul which keeps in stock all the seeds of Samskaras and the psychic effects of all mental actions done by the individual. This stock of impressions maintains the future embodiments of ignorance and agony as an individual in terrestrial life. Avidya is therefore the mother of misery and the cause of the prison-life of the egoistic personality as a distinct individual of the vast universe.

2. Avidya is a false perception by which the ignorant Jiva takes the body and intellect as pure, permanent and a source of pleasure.

"Avidya" is "that which does not exist." In fact, it is a conceit based on the belief that the objects perceived through externalisation and the organs of such perception are all absolutely real in their forms. The creations through intensified thought by the Self which does not actually create anything other than itself because of the non-existence of an entity second to the One Self, are imagined to be actually existing by themselves. A shadow is taken to be the substance, a phantom is mistaken for the reality, the mirage is believed to be a tank. The mountains appear to dance and the trees move when the mind is affected by madness or intoxication. The dreadful fever of life is the agitation of the One Consciousness which dreams itself to be many. The universe is the dream of the subjective Self, the object of the reverie of Self-hypnotisation. The world exists in the cosmic acceptance of what is really an illusory presentation.

The body, the mind the intellect and all the modifications of imagination are taken for granted as pure and perfect and a source of permanent happiness for the self. The self is the blissful eternal being and it wishes to find bliss in what it has merely imagined and what really does not exist. This delusion is reinforced by continuous activity and struggle to maintain the state of the self-imposed individuality and the energy necessary for the keeping up of the illusion is supplied from the fund of the source of ignorance, the Anandamaya Kosha. Even in the death of the body, this centre of ignorance is not destroyed. It is carried to all bodies which are manifested by the self. This cycle of Samsara never comes to an end since the sheath of nescience adds to the old stock of Samskaras, the impressions of psychic actions performed in the daily life of the individual. Liberation from this cycle comes only through a snapping of the thread of thought through spiritual meditation.

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To be continued

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