The Moksha Gita: Chapter: 7 -Slogas - 7 to11. by Swami Sivananda - Commentary by Swami Krishnananda
Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF) is at Adi Sankara Nilayam.
October 9, 2025·
Kochi
The Valedictory Ceremony of the second Vedanta Sadhaka Course (VSC) 2024–25 was held at Adi Sankara Nilayam. This year-long residential course, offered as a Post Graduate Diploma or Diploma in Advaita Vedanta by Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth (CVV), was conducted under the guidance of Swami Sharadananda Sarasvati (Resident Acharya) and Br. Ved Chaitanya (Upa-acharya). The Course immersed the students in the timeless wisdom of Vedantic study, Sanskrit, spiritual disciplines and satsang in the maternal birth-home of Sri Adi Sankaracharya.
The valedictory programme commenced with a traditional ceremonial welcome (Purnakumbha) and a nostalgic presentation, ‘Blessed Memories’, encapsulating the students’ journey through the year. The ceremonial lamp lighting, Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda’s Ashtottarashata Namavali Archana and arati created a devotional atmosphere.
Following the invocation prayer, Swami Sharadananda Sarasvati presented the comprehensive Course Report, providing a summary of the rich curriculum covered. The students then shared heartfelt reflections of their transformative year. The graduating sadhakas were graced with the blessings of Mukhya Acharya Pujya Swami Swaroopananda (Global Head, Chinmaya Mission) through a heartfelt video message, and the benedictory words of Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayananda, read by Swami Sharadananda Sarasvati, both received as treasured guidance. In the Presidential Address, Swami Viviktananda (Regional Head, Chinmaya Mission, Kerala) released ‘Atmapatha’, the yearbook, and emphasised the importance of living Vedanta in today’s world.
The Benedictory Address was delivered by Swami Swaprabhananda (Ramakrishna Mission, Thrissur), who blessed the students to live the knowledge gained with steadfastness. Felicitation Addresses were shared by Br. Ved Chaitanya, Prof. Gauri Mahulikar (Academic Director, CIF), Sri Rajesh Patel (Chief Sevak, CIF), Prof. Ajay Kapoor (Vice Chancellor, CVV) and Sri Karthik Sharma (HOD, School of Vedic Knowledge Systems, CVV).
Certificates were distributed to all graduating students, and Swami Sharadananda Sarasvati gave the final instructions, guiding them for their onward spiritual journey.
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Friday 28, Aug 2026,16:30.
Books
Bhagavad Gita & Hinduism
The Moksha Gita: 7- Swami Sivananda.
Chapter 7: The Process of Sadhana: 7 to 11.
Commentary: Swami Krishnananda.
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Chapter 7: The Process of Sadhana: Slogas - 7&8
स्वीयमाधेहि चित्तं च निरस्ताखिलकल्मषम् ।
अवसादय संबन्धान् मनसो बाह्यवस्तुभिः ॥७॥
समूलं जहि कामांश्च संकल्पांस्त्यज सर्वशः ।
विनाशयाखिलास्तृष्णा ब्रह्मध्यानैकमानसः ॥
अवर्ण्यप्रभमद्वैतं ब्रह्मपीठं तदैष्यसि ॥८॥
7,8.
Purge your mind of all impurities. Sever mentally all your connection with visible objects. Destroy the weeds of desires. Abandon all Sankalpas. Eradicate the longings. Meditate on Brahman. You will attain soon the non-dual Brahmic seat of ineffable splendour.
The mind should be purged of the tendencies to materialisation. This can be done through the spiritual penances that prescribe the austere living of the individual. One of the potent methods of removing the impurities of the mind is acting against the habits and natural propensities of the mind. The mind has got certain main doors through which it throws out energy into the external world and attracts objects for the maintenance of the relations which it should keep with them for the sake of saving its skin. The moment the mind stops relating itself to things which are disconnected among themselves its life is at stake. The daily activity of man on the earth for acquiring food, drink, clothing and shelter from the oppression of nature is to guard his own ego from being presented with what is harmful to the endurance of personality for long. This activity is mainly for the purpose of Self-preservation. A fasting of the senses and the mind is very painful to the individual, because of its thereby nearing the danger of self-extinction through non-relation. The mind can either contemplate on outward objects, the egoistic pleasure-centres, or sleep by adjourning its activities. The beginner in spiritual Sadhana, therefore, observes fast and vigil in order to withhold the natural habits of the mind of taking pleasures in relational connections with the universe and falling into torpidity when it is unable to obtain sense-pleasure. This morbid state of the self is to be cured by severing oneself from all objects and asserting Self-independence. Mouna is another method which the aspirant adopts to check the habit of self-expression of the mind, for, speech is an extrovert-force which maintains relational existence. The world cannot exist even for a moment if things stop inter-relations and assert Independence. The force of Nature compels the individual to abide by its plan of the sustentation of diversity. Hence Yoga can be practised only after boycotting the Pravritti-tendency of Prakriti or Maya through Tapas, Ahimsa, Satya-Vachana, Brahmacharya and Dhyana. Such a rare hero alone can meditate on Brahman which is the climax of the grand Truth where the cunning relativeness is totally destroyed.
Slogas - 9&10.
अपि तत्त्वमसीत्यस्य महावाक्यस्य तत्त्वतः ।
अर्थ बुध्यस्व जिज्ञासो स स्यान्निःश्रेयसाय ते ॥९॥
ब्रह्मात्मैक्यानुभूतिश्च महावाक्योद्भवा पुनः ।
संसारसागरोत्तारे तात नौकायते खलु ॥१०॥
9, 10.
Understand the right significance of the "Tat Twam Asi" Mahavakya. The knowledge relating to the identity of the individual soul and the supreme soul that arises from Mahavakyas like "Tat Twam Asi" (Thou art That) is the means to emancipation.
Tat-Twam-Asi is the Abheda-Bodha-Vakya of the Upanishad which is also the Upadesha-Vakya instructed on by the Brahma-Srotriya Brahmanishtha Guru to the Adhikari or the disciple. The consciousness of the nonseparateness of Jiva and Brahman is brought about by this great aphoristic precept which Sage Uddalaka repeated nine times to his son and disciple Swetaketu.
"Thou art That" is the meaning carried out by this declaration of the Sruti. It has got a superficial verbal meaning or Vachyartha and an essential indicative meaning or Lakshyartha.
The individual and the cosmic, Avidya and Maya, Jiva and Ishwara, Atman and Brahman are the aspects which correspond themselves to the meaning of the terms 'Twam' and 'Tat' or 'Thou' and 'That'. The identity of the two is brought out by an illustration.
A person Devadatta is seen by me in January at Delhi. I recognise him and say, "This is Devadatta." I go to Agra on another occasion and find the same Devadatta there in April and exclaim, "This is THAT Devadatta", "Soyam Devadattah", referring to the identity of the persons seen at two places at two different times. The superimpositions which appear in the 'January-Delhi-Devadatta' and the 'April-Agra-Devadatta' are ignored and only the real 'Devadatta' is taken into account. The references to Time and Space – January, April, Delhi, Agra – are only temporary and relative, for the Devadatta who was in Delhi during the month of January cannot be different from the Devadatta who came to Agra during the month of April, because the person is the same, though the place and the time are different. Thus the identity of the two Devadattas is determined.
The individual and the cosmic persons respectively limited by Avidya and Maya, namely, the Jiva and the Ishwara, are two personalities differentiated by space and time. When the verbal meaning or the Vachyartha of the Mahavakya is taken, the Jiva is asserted to be Ishwara himself in the Pindanda. The Vishwa, Taijasa and Prajna of the microcosm or the Pindanda correspond closely to the Virat, Hiranyagarbha and Ishwara of the macrocosm or the Brahmanda. Thus the Jiva is an exact copy of or is identical with Ishwara.
But the Lakshyartha or the indicative meaning of the sentence is brought out in the illustration by "Soyam Devadattah" or "This is that Devadatta". The limitations are cast off and the essence only is taken. Atman limited by Avidya is Jiva and Brahman limited by Maya is Ishwara. When the Avidya of Jiva is cast off and the Maya of Ishwara is ignored, what remains is Atman instead of Jiva and Brahman instead of Ishwara. Just as the Devadatta of Delhi was the same as the Devadatta of Agra, the Reality of Ishwara and the Reality of the Jiva are one and the same. Hence Atman is identical with Brahman. 'Thou' stands for the Atman and 'That' for Brahman, and the word 'Art' or 'Asi' signifies the identity of the two as the One Akhanda-Ekarasa-Satchidananda-Ghana.
Sloga-11.
समदृष्ट्या विवेकेन सत्सङ्गेन स्थिरेण च ।
चित्तेन न तद्विचारेण सुलभं परमं पदम् ॥११॥
11.
The immaculate and supreme seat can be attained very easily if you possess equal vision, balanced mind and discrimination, if you associate with the wise persons and if you practise Vichara or enquiry constantly.
Equal vision and balance of mind are the fore-runners of the dawn of Pure Consciousness. Equal vision is the attempt to perceive the same thing in all beings. The beings of the universe are by their very qualities and actions, Guna and Karma, dissociated from one another, because of the predominant factors of their surface-consciousness, which manifest forces which begin to move in different directions. When a person or a thing is perceived with the physical eye, the consciousness-force of the object, whirling in a particular direction according to the nature of its will or tendency to exist, and the perceiver's consciousness which modifies itself into the form of the object are both influenced by the potentialities and the tendencies of the objectifying forces of each other, and this tendency being different in different individuals, equal vision on the part of the perceiving subject does not become an easy matter.
The aspirant who tries to practise equal vision, therefore, has to raise the level of his consciousness to such a height through self-denial and protracted meditation as to be able to overcome the variegated influences exercised upon it by the born tendencies of the objects perceived and the powers that surround it in the universe. The subjective consciousness of the aspirant pierces through this embodied tendency by the power of the intelligent will and beholds the common essence lying as the background of all forms. This method of the perception of Unity in diversity makes the mind balanced because of the want of agitating factors in the universe and the internal world which is already cleansed of its rusted matter through Vichara and meditation.
Association with the wise transmits such vibrations of light and harmony that the crude mind gets influenced by those vibrations and feels ease in the spiritual march. Even as the sun sheds his light wherever he be, the wise men, the Jnanis, shed wisdom and peace wherever they go. All who come in contact with them quickly get transformed, because the force which they vibrate around them is generated from Pure Consciousness which is Brahman Itself.
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Continued
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