The Moksha Gita: by Swami Sivananda: Commentary by 2.3-. by Swami Krishnananda.

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Saturday 05, March 2025, 10:50.

The Moksha Gita: by Swami Sivananda: Commentary: 2.3.

Chapter 2: The Nature of Brahman -3.

Swami Krishnananda.

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Slogam-8:

"Brahman is distinct from the gross, subtle and causal bodies. He is the soul of all. He is the Inner Ruler of all. He is eternally free. He is without action, and without motion."

The three bodies are the layers of unconsciousness that envelop the Light of the glorious Self. The causal body is the immediate and the subtlest and hence the most powerful of the layers of ignorance. It is the state of forgetfulness of the Self, where there is darkness and blindness of the soul, and the soul is left there in a state of unconsciousness of the absolute nature of itself. 

The second sheath is the intensified form of the first, the subtle body, where there is distraction in addition to the ignorance of the causal sheath, a presentation of untruth over and above the forgetfulness of the Reality. The third is the grossest materialisation of the imaginative consciousness where it is thickened to flesh and bone and is completely cut off from the rest of existence. The individual hypnotises itself through intense imagination into the belief that this distinguished body is its essential nature and suffers the acute pangs of separation from Truth. Life on earth is only this drama of the misery of the individual egos.

But Brahman is untouched by imaginative separateness. It is the Substratum of all phenomenal play and the world-orbs roll in it like bubbles in the vast ocean. It is the Inner Controller of all changing individuals and rests in its eternal repose indifferent to the shadowy appearance of universes and individuals. It is eternally free and can be bound by none, not even by motion and action, for motion and action are directed towards an unattained goal, but Brahman has no goal to attain and so no purpose to move and act. It is the majesty of Self-sufficiency, Perfection and utter Truth, beyond which there is nothing. It is the Be-all and End-all of everything. When that is attained, everything is attained.

Slogas: 9&10:

"Brahman cannot be defined. To define Brahman is to deny Brahman. The only adequate description of Brahman is a series of negatives. That is the reason why the Upanishads declare "Neti-Neti" "not this, not this."

To define Brahman is to deny the essentiality of its all-inclusiveness. For, definition cannot but be partial. When it is said that Brahman is "something," it is simultaneously asserted thereby that something is "not" Brahman. But such a method of defining Brahman is incorrect, for there is not anything which is not Brahman. Brahman is everything that the mind can think of and which is even unthinkable. If Brahman is consciousness, the unconscious objects are excluded from it. If Brahman is Bliss, the individuals filled with grief are excluded from it. If Brahman is Being, it cannot be said what non-being is, though non-being is not. Hence all definitions centre themselves in aspects which are accepted as pleasant to the individuals and all unpleasant experiences are cast off as not belonging to Brahman. Such a narrow conception of Truth may be valid with respect to individual happiness but not to Truth as it is. Truth or Brahman excludes none, none is dear to it, none is its enemy. There is nothing pleasant to it, nothing is unpleasant, nothing good to it, nothing bad. Such an inscrutable Being is Brahman. It cannot be defined by any positive characteristics. It can only be said what it is "not," but we cannot say that Brahman is "like this."

Hence, the only adequate description of the nature of Brahman that we have to resort to is a series of negatives, "not this, not this." After denying everything that is relational, what remains is Brahman. This is one of the methods of Vedantic Meditation, the negative method which arrives at Truth by denying the appearance of untruth. The positive method of Meditation conceives of Brahman as Satchidananda and asserts its absoluteness and tries to dissolve plurality, duality and individuality in that Glory of Eternity.

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Next

Chapter 3: The Nature of Maya

Continued

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