The Moksha Gita: by Swami Sivananda: Commentary by Swami Krishnananda: 3.2.

 

========================================================================================================

Tuesday 06, May 2025, 10:10.

The Moksha Gita: by Swami Sivananda: Commentary: 3.2.

Chapter 3: The Nature of Maya-2.

Swami Krishnananda.

==================a.========================================================================================

6. He who gets knowledge of the Self having overcome Maya, the illusory power, will alone know what Maya is, how it arises and is destroyed.

One who acquires Infinite Knowledge does not find any mystery in the appearance of Maya. The spiritual seeker overcomes Maya through meditation on Brahman and negation of worldly propensities. The Truth-centred Sage possesses the wealth of imperishable wisdom and is ever in unison with the One Whole Being of Brahman. The terrible sport of Maya appears as Satya or real to a worldly person, as Anirvachaniya or indescribable to an aspirant, and Tuccha or mean to a Jnani.

Knowledge of the Self is the resting in the awareness of the unlimitedness of Consciousness and Bliss in one unchangeable mass. When this stupendous state of Truth is experienced Maya flees away from that Light of Enlightenment. Where there is Light there cannot be darkness. When Avidya is destroyed, Vidya shines by itself. When the clouds are no more, the sun shines in his pristine greatness. When ignorance is removed, Knowledge at once reveals itself. When egoism is disintegrated, the Absolute alone hails supreme.

The why, what and how of Maya can be known only by one who has transcended Maya and has entered the Glory of the Self. Others can merely speculate over it, but cannot solve the riddle, for the instrument or the mechanism of human knowledge is centred in his psychological organ which is a modification of Maya itself. Darkness cannot destroy darkness. Ignorance cannot remove ignorance, for they both are not contradictory forces. Man's highest faculty of knowledge is the intellect which is itself a creature of self-limitation and hence it is impossible for the human being to determine the nature of the Power that supersedes him in extent and subtlety. It is only the intuitional light which comprehends in itself the totality of existence that can step above Maya and behold the majesty of the Self. Only then can the illusoriness of Maya and the eternity of Brahman be realised in completeness. Intellect should give way to the higher religious experience not based on the ego. Real religion begins when the intellect stops working. That is the religion of Self-realisation where the entire Brahman is experienced, and Maya is totally negated.

03_05

7. The five elements, the five Tanmatras (subtle or root elements) and the various objects of the world are all products or modifications of Maya.

The five rudimentary principles of sound, touch, colour, taste and smell and the five gross elements of sky, air, fire, water and earth are born Of the Vikshepa-Shakti or the distracting power of Maya, which projects thereby the world of objective existence. Constant change within itself is the natural tendency of the force of Maya. Maya does not rest in itself. It is a vigorous active agent whose sole purpose is to transform itself into the phenomenon and Noumenon through evolution and involution of diverse bodies. Disintegration and integration are the two aspects of the destructive and constructive powers of Maya. Individuals are thrown into Being or Becoming by this gigantic Power according to the extent of the process of development undergone by each individual.

The fivefold functioning of breath, the five sense-organs and the five organs of action are again the further modifications of the subtle root-elements. Mind, intellect, sub-conscious and ego are the fourfold functions of the psychic mechanism which is the product of the Sattwa-portion of the subtle elements. The macrocosm and the microcosm are thus closely related as the original and the duplicate. The physical sheath or the body is the materialised effect of the psychic being and thus the entire universe with its individuals is a modification of Maya.

03_06

8. Just as you can infer the existence of fire through smoke, so also you can infer the existence of Maya through Her various manifestations.

The existence of Maya is inferable through the universal workings of nature. The main action of Maya is diversification and Unification. The existence of Maya is felt by the perception of something which cannot belong to the Eternal Reality. Birth, growth, change, decay and death are the common phenomena which are seen in the daily life of every individual. These fivefold modifications are the essence of egoistic life. Creation, preservation, destruction, love, hatred, exhilaration, pain, are certain factors in the evolution of the universe. Such activities as these cannot belong to what is absolutely permanent. Activity is a struggle to overcome the existing defect. An untainted being which has no reason to wish for anything else, which is in itself full and perfect, changes not and acts not, for there is no purpose whatsoever in modifying itself into something else. It is ever satisfied in itself and is eternally in joyous repose. Therefore, the bustle of universal life and the daily cry and strife of individuals must be Maya.

Moreover, the existence of individuality itself proves the existence of Maya. Individuality is not permanent, for it is limited and finite. A finite being cannot be everlasting. Therefore, individuality is a negation of Absoluteness. Hence, individual existence must be Maya.

The people of the world struggle to obtain external objects, because their egoistic personalities are not allowed their existence independent of the other objects of the universe. They strive hard and feel the necessity to relate themselves to the manifold entities that exist apart from themselves, thus proving the unreality of their individual independence. Therefore life as different personalities in the world is Maya. Thought, speech and action are non-eternal and are mere expulsions of consciousness-rays, and therefore, the multitudinous appearance of degrees of reality also is a phase of Maya.

*****

Continued

==========================================================================================================