The Moksha Gita: by Swami Sivananda: Commentary: 2.1. by Swami Krishnananda.

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Monday 27, January 2025, 10:15.
The Moksha Gita: by Swami Sivananda: Commentary: 1.1.
Chapter 2: The Nature of Brahman-1
Swami Krishnananda.

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1, 2. 

The Guru said: Salutation to Sat-Chit-Ananda Para-Brahman, that glorious first Preceptor, who is self-luminous, eternal indivisible, pure, spotless, desireless, attributeless, timeless, spaceless, changeless, beginningless and endless.

The greatest and the First Preceptor is the Ocean of Satchidananda. It is the Inner Reality or the central Being of all. The promptings of the innermost Light of the Self alone are responsible for the spiritual progress of the individual. Even seeking a Preceptor will be impossible if the Permanent Self within does not throw the discriminative Consciousness upon the individual or the Jiva. The proper grasping of the truths of Vedanta and the rapt contemplation on the Reality are the effects of the spiritual consciousness already existing in the aspirant in a potential condition. If not, none could communicate knowledge to another individual. The transmission of knowledge from one person to another presupposes the background of a universal consciousness that keeps beings in unison. This permanent verity is Satchidananda or Existence-Knowledge-Bliss which is therefore the Guru of all gurus, the Source of Light, Wisdom, Power and Bliss.

Satchidananda is self-luminous, for it is the very existence of eternal Consciousness. It is undivided, Akhanda-Ekarasa, for it is homogeneous and is without internal or external differentiation. There is no Swagata, Swajatiya or Vijatiya Bheda in Brahman or Satchidananda. It is One Mass of Brilliance and unblemished Grandeur of Divine Existence. It is pure because it is untainted by thought or objectification. It is untouched by the diversifying Prakriti and is desireless, for it is the Height of all Perfection. It is Bhuma or the Fullness of Life. It is attributeless for the positive and the negative natures react one another and get fused in it. It is spaceless and timeless, for space is a special mode of particularisation in Being and time is closely connected with space and Brahman or Satchidananda is without any particularisation whatsoever. Space and Time are individualised objectifications which are born of the self-limitation of a centre of consciousness. Hence the changeless Reality which is ever Self-satisfied is beginningless and endless, for Impartite Existence in the Wholeness of its character cannot have motion in Itself and is, therefore, an inexplicable Being which is hard even to imagine. That is the Truth of all truths, "Satyasya Satyam" or the Supreme Brahman of the Upanishads. That is the Goal of all quests. That is the object of Meditation. That is the Ideal to be attained by one and all. That is the Essence of Existence.

3, 4. 

That Ultimate Reality, which is the support for this world, body, Prana, mind and senses, which is the womb for the Vedas, which is all-pervading and all-permeating, which is colourless, odourless, tasteless, nameless and formless, that something shines eternally.

The Ultimate Reality is the support for the world even as the Sun is the support for the mirage. The world is the dazzling of Eternal Consciousness. The nihilists are wrong in saying that nothing exists at all. The world-phenomenon cannot be based on Nothing-less or Emptiness. An appearance demands a Reality as its corollary. The world is an expression of Brahman through Maya even as the body is an expression of Atman through mind. The Prana, the mind and the senses are the operative organs of the active self which is agitated by the Vikshepa-Shakti or the distracting power of Maya. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says that the one Brahman alone puts on all names, forms and does all actions in its own Being. Thus, the whole universe is to be understood as a sport of the one Absolute which seems to play in Itself by revealing Itself in multifarious forms.

It is the womb of the Vedas and the Source of the Shabda-Brahman, the eternal "Omkara." The principle of sound is the first evolute from the original Absoluteness. The Vedas are the intuitional revelations breathed out by the Highest Manifestation of the Infinite Essence. They are the words which express the glory of Brahman which pervades the entirety of manifestation, and which is imperceptible to the senses. The senses cannot reach It because they are objective forces which try to run away from the Centre of Existence. The more they begin to function in their realm, the farther they find themselves from the Reality. Hence the Reality is considered colourless, odourless etc, as these sensual characteristics are not of the essential nature of the Fullness of Brahman.

Brahman is formless for form belongs to a being which is defined by space. Absoluteness cannot have a form. Form always implies the existence of its possessor in a space time universe having something somewhere outside itself. This characteristic does not form the quality of the Eternal Being for individuality and eternity are contradictions. Hence, Brahman which is Infinite is formless, and It shines eternally.

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Continued

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