The Moksha Gita: by Swami Sivananda: Commentary by Swami Krishnananda: 5.1

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Saturday 12, July 2025, 06:00. 
Books
Bhagavad Gita & Hinduism
The Moksha Gita: by Swami Sivananda: Commentary: 4.3. by Swami Krishnananda.
Chapter 5: The Nature of the Universe.1.
Swami Krishnananda.

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Chapter 5: The Nature of the Universe:

गुरुरुवाच ॥

नामरूपात्मकं चैतद्विश्वमज्ञानमूलकम् ।

विद्धि तद्विलयं याति स्वात्मबोधार्यमोदये ॥

आत्मभिन्नमसद्विश्वं मरीचिस्वप्नसंनिभम् ॥१॥

1. The Guru said: This universe of names and forms has its origin in ignorance. It is dissolved by knowledge of the Self. The universe, being other than the Self, is unreal like a dream. It is like a mirage.

The universe is a big house of disconnected family-members. Though it is in fact a "universe," it appears as a "multiverse" due to the differences in the natures of its contents. Every living organism possesses such characters as to make it a body completely separated from the whole. Thus the universe is like a "house divided against itself."

The universe is a negation of Brahman, or rather a disfiguring of Brahman. Existence and content are non-separate in the fundamental nature of the Reality. The universe is noted for such a distinction between every conceivable aspect or portion of itself. The universe is torn to pieces of scattered characteristics everywhere conflicting in their qualities and actions. The cosmic mind and the individual mind are complementary creators of the presentation of the universe.

The cosmic vibration of the universal psyche pulsates in every speck of space and projects the vast body of the physical world in the same way as the individual consciousness materialises itself. The universe exists as long as there is faith of the individual in its existence. But the Self-realization of the individual does not totally destroy the objective universe, because, though the world is the production of the thought of the individual in relation to its own life, the power that sustains the outer world is in the totality of the mentations of all the individuals constituting the universe. This totality of minds is the cosmic mind a part of which is the individual mind. The dissolution of the universe in Self-Knowledge is only in relation to the consciousness of the individual concerned and therefore does not hold good in relation to other conscious centres which are of a different stage of evolution.

Anything other than the Absolute cannot exits. Duality cannot be eternal. Therefore, the universe, being other than the Absolute or the Self in its basic nature, must be a dream-like perception and cannot be a reality. It must be so unreal as a mirage appearing in the desert, for it cannot be given any substantial value in the region of truth due to the inconsistency of its existence with the enduring Truth.

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2.

रज्ज्वामध्यास्यते सर्पः शुक्तौ च रजतं यथा ।

स्थाणौ चौरोऽभ्रवृन्दे पूर्मृगतृष्णासु चोदकम् ॥

गगने नीलिमा चैव ब्रह्मण्यारोप्यते जगत् ॥२॥

2. Just as a snake is superimposed on the rope, silver on the mother-of-pearl, a thief on the post, city in the clouds, mirage in the desert, blueness in the sky, so also this world is superimposed on Brahman.

A rope is mistaken to be a snake. This is taken as an illustration to prove the similar superimposition of the world on Brahman. When a person mistakes a rope to be a snake, he remembers a snake which he has previously seen and the form of the snake and the rope being similar, there is an intelligible occasion for mistaking one thing for the other. The memory of a thing seen in the past becomes the cause of the mistaken notion. But the critic asks, what object that is similar to the world has the individual previously seen in order to commit the mistake of superimposing it on Brahman? There is no possibility of the Jiva's having seen any such thing before in its life in the course of evolution. Therefore the hasty thinker concludes that the universe is not a superimposition but must be a reality.

This wrong judgment is born of stretching the illustration beyond limits. The illustration is employed merely to suggest that the Eternal Brahman is the sole reality and that the universe is neither a limitation nor a manifestation nor a changed form of Brahman, even as the snake is not the effect of any change on the part of the rope. It is not meant to be pulled in any way beyond this meaning. According to Gaudapada, the perception of the snake and perception of the rope are both unreal. The appearance of the universe is due to no change of the Reality even as the mirage is not the effect of any change in the sun or the dream objects are not the productions of any change of the dreaming person. The whole question is centred round mere "thought", a form of Consciousness itself and nothing more. The universe is an appearance, nothing else!

Similarly the other illustrations cited are not meant to be taken in their literal sense but only in their spirit which is used to solve the mysterious relation between Brahman and the universe. They all go to prove that the world and the Reality are not related as two objects but as an identical Oneness. Vidyaranya says that if there is any relation between Brahman and the Jiva, it is one of the Self, Identical Homogeneity of the One Undivided Essence and not anything else.

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NEXT: Slogas 3&4:

जलमेव यथा चोर्मिफेनबुद्बुदरूपतः ।

विवर्तते सुवर्णं च कर्णिकावलयात्मना ॥३॥

मृदेवमत्रकुम्भादिरूपतस्तन्तवो यथा ।

वस्त्रोत्तरीयकौपीनकञ्चुकाद्यात्मनानघ ॥

तथा ब्रह्मकमेवात्र विश्वरूपं बिभर्ति हि ॥४॥

3, 4. Just as it is water alone that appears as waves, ripples, etc., gold alone as earrings, bangles, etc., clay alone as pots, jars, etc., threads alone as cloth, towels, etc., so also does Brahman alone appear as many universes.

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Continued

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