(Apr 9,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – Brahman - The Essence of Existence by Sri Swami Krishnananda

 Brahman - The Essence of Existence

Divine Life Society Publication: Moksha Gita by Sri Swami Sivananda, Commentary by Swami Krishnananda

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.

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.

Excerpts from:

Brahman-The Essence of Existence  - Moksha Gita by Sri Swami Sivananda, Commentary by Swami Krishnananda

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(Feb 19,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – The State of Jivanmukti by Swami Krishnananda

The State of Jivanmukti

Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 10 Moksha Gita by Swami Krishnananda

A Jivanmukta is a sage who is liberated from bondage even while living with a body. The perception of the material universe as such vanishes and he beholds the One Brahman appearing as the universe. The egoism of the Jivanmukta is like a burnt cloth which has got the appearance of a cloth but is actually reduced to the state of ashes. The individual consciousness of the Jivanmukta is powerful enough to maintain the existence of his physical body, but it is not capable of bringing to him another birth as an embodied being. His Sanchita-Karmas get fried by the fire of Brahma-Jnana or Knowledge of the Absolute Reality. He has no Agami Karmas to bring future births because he has no feelings of Kartritva and Bhoktritva. His actions are cosmic movements and not the instincts of the sense of egoism. The Prarabdha Karma which has given rise to Brahma-Jnana lasts as long as the momentum of past desires which constitute the present Prarabdha lasts. An illustration will make this fact very clear.

A hunter sees an animal moving in the forest and thinking that it is a tiger he shoots an arrow at it. After the arrow has left the bow-string he realises that the animal is not a tiger but a cow. But this subsequent knowledge will not save the cow from being affected by the arrow. The arrow will hit the object which lies within the sphere of its momentum.

The Jnani realises that the whole universe is Brahman only. But the desires which he had given rise to during the time when he thought that the objective world is real will not cease from demanding materialisation into effects as long as the momentum of their craving lasts. Hence these desires keep up the physical body of the Jivanmukta for some time even after his Self-realization. When the Prarabdha-Karma is exhausted the body drops off by itself and the sage becomes unified with the Infinite Brahman.

But, even while living with a body, the Jivanmukta identifies his consciousness with Brahman and is not affected by the pairs of opposites and the forces of nature. The whole universe is his body for he is in tune with all the forces of Nature due to his transcending all phenomenal relativities and resting in Brahman-Consciousness at all times.

The Jivanmukta is the witness of the three lower states of consciousness, namely, the waking, dreaming and deep sleep states. He realizes the Turiya state which is peaceful, blissful and non-dual. He lives in the seventh Bhumika of Jnana where the mind becomes Brahman itself. The expanded consciousness soars above the five sheaths and hails beyond the region of thought and intellect. The Jivanmukta's thoughts and actions do not promise a future world-experience for him. He experiences the world and individuality only apparently and not in reality.

He does not get delighted by pleasures, nor do distresses pain him. He has nothing dear, nothing inimical. Even violent distractions cannot make him move away from the Reality. He does not trouble anybody, nor is he troubled by anybody even in the least. He talks sweetly and nobly. He comes out of the net of distinctions and desires like a lion from its cage. Fear is unknown to him, and he is never helpless or dejected. He does not care for life, honor or death. He behaves as the occasion of the environment requires, but is absolutely detached within. He is an Apta-Kama. He has got nothing to obtain or avoid. He is satisfied with his own Self. He is a Mahakarta, a Mahabhokta and a Mahatyagi.

The Jivanmukta feels the great Unity of himself and the whole universe in the Supreme Brahman. He has an abiding realization of the secret Oneness of Existence which is the basis of universal love. It is the love that does not expect any reward, return or recompense. Such people are the veritable Emperors of the universe.

The Jivanmukta is neither an idle man not an active man. He is a transcendental actor. His behavior is not understandable even as Brahman is inscrutable, for he is Brahman itself. Whatever he does is righteous, moral and ideal, for his actions are the expressions of the Absolute itself. He leads the Divine Life and moves in the free flow of the Law of Eternal Existence. He has no war between the body and the spirit. His external actions are just like those of the ignorant worldly man. But the greatest difference lies between their minds, the desires and Vasanas. The one does not know what is desire and the other is immersed in desires. The mind of a liberated man is pure Sattwa itself, it is no mind at all. He is established in the state of the Self unimpeded by phenomenal laws. He rejoices in the Infinite Being and lives in the world like a happy bird, being fully illumined with Transcendental Wisdom.

Mukti is not a thing to be attained. It is not far away to be obtained. It is the very being itself and hence the mere knowledge or realization of it is itself Mukti. Everything is Brahman only in the three periods of time. There is neither bondage nor suffering. The Consciousness of this Truth is called Liberation in empirical language.

Logically, the highest state of Moksha is the merging of individual consciousness in Absolute Consciousness. Eternal Existence, Infinite Knowledge and Immortal Bliss is Moksha or Final Emancipation.

Excerpts from:

The State of Jivanmukti - Chapter 10 Moksha Gita by Swami Krishnananda

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(Dec 17,2013 ) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Nature of Maya - Commentary by Swami Krishnananda



The Nature of Maya

Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 3 Moksha Gita by Swami Sivananda, Commentary by Swami Krishnananda

Maya is the cosmic aspect of the power that hides Reality's essence. It is the limiting adjunct of Ishwara or the highest manifestation of the Absolute. The qualities of Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, light, activity and darkness, form the essence of Maya and it is these qualities that play the havoc of the world-phenomenon. Sattwa illumines, Rajas distracts and Tamas clouds the understanding of the individual.

The root-meaning of the word "Maya" indicates its non-existent nature. Maya is not non-existent because it appears to us, and it is not even existent for it is non-enduring. Only Self-Knowledge or intuitive illumination can solve the why and how of Maya.

Maya is not Brahman and yet, it is the Power of Brahman. It is a deceptive and indescribable appearance which not only makes the individual forget the Unity of Brahman but in addition to it presents an unreal distractive phenomenon of diversity. Intellect which is rooted in egoism is the distracting factor in the individual and the Anandamaya-Kosha or the sheath of ignorance is the veiling factor. Every thought, therefore, is an activity in the realm of Maya, for all thoughts spring from individual consciousness which is itself the effect of the diversifying nature of Maya. All individuals, right from the supreme Ishwara, down to the insignificant creature of the netherlands are within the boundaries of Maya, differing only in the degree or the extent to which each is influenced by it.

Maya is neither real nor unreal, neither is, nor is not. It transcends human comprehension. To extricate oneself from the hypnotic effect of this Divine Illusion the individual has to dehypnotise himself into the consciousness of Self-Illumination and absoluteness.

The nature of Maya is beginningless existence and is inexpressible by speech. It is distinct from existence and non-existence. It is without beginning, but with an end. It is ended by Brahmajnana or Absolute Wisdom arrived at through intense meditation or Nididhyasana. Maya differs from Brahman in that Brahman is beginningless and endless, whereas Maya is removable. The origin of ignorance cannot be found out, but it is well known that sages who have realized the Eternal Brahman free themselves from the effects of Maya. One can only tell how to free oneself from Maya, but one cannot say why Maya creates a universe.

Maya is Shudda-Sattwa and is not preponderated by Rajas or Tamas. That is the reason why Ishwara or the Cosmic Lord is uncontrolled and unaffected by the hypnotising power of Maya. Ishwara is the Personal God, the object of religious worship, and Brahman is the Absolute Truth, the object of philosophical quest.

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. The spiritual seeker overcomes Maya through meditation on Brahman and negation of worldly propensities. The terrible sport of Maya appears as real to a worldly person, as indescribable to an aspirant, and Tuccha or mean to a Jnani. 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. Darkness cannot destroy darkness. Ignorance cannot remove ignorance, for they both are not contradictory forces. 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.

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.

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 main action of Maya is diversification and Unification. Activity is a struggle to overcome the existing defect. The existence of individuality itself proves the existence of Maya. Individuality is not permanent, for it is limited and finite. 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. 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.

Maya is centred in the individual consciousness in the form of mind. Whatever Maya does, that the mind also does. Mind is miniature-Maya. The veiling and distracting activity of Maya is undertaken by the mind in the form of nescience and egoism. Nescience is seated in the innermost sheath or the Anandamaya kosha of the soul and the ego is seated in the intellect. The mind projects the physical body even as Maya projects the cosmos. The activity of the universe is going on in the human body too. The Chandogya Upanishad says that whatever is found in the external universe is found exactly in the miniature cosmos or the human body. Jiva is therefore a degraded copy of Ishwara. And Atman, therefore, is Brahman.

There are different degrees in the manifestation of Maya or illusion. Maya is more manifest and works more powerfully in inanimate beings than animate, more in brute nature than in refined, more in Tamas and Rajas than in Sattwa, more in an aspirant than in a saint, more in the sleeping and dreaming states than in the waking, more in gross forms than in subtle. Maya is manifest in a progressive evolutionary basis on one hand and as a steady concealing of Reality on the other hand. In other words the whole process of appearance is in the domain of Maya.

There is nothing on earth or in heaven which is not controlled by the play of Maya. Maya is the ruling power which borrows its strength from Brahman.

When the mind is destroyed, Maya also is swept away from the vision of the individual. When sun sets, there is no more the dance of the mirage. The whole universe is the perception by the mind of the Absolute Brahman in varieties of forms due to the fluctuations caused by desire for objective gain. Hence, the destruction of the mind is the brushing aside of the entire phenomena and that ends in the experience of the light of the Self.

The seed of Maya is the mind which sends forth branches of its objectifying force through the channels of the organs of sensing. The very meaning of phenomenal existence is preservation of the egoistic individuality and reproducing oneself into manifold forms. The restlessness of the individual is caused by the projecting forth of mental forces for purposes of acquiring objects of sense. So long as the objects are not obtained there is the reign of agitation and irritation everywhere. There is only a temporary peace when the objects required are acquired, but the next moment the mind darts upon some other source of objective gratification and keeps the restlessness in continuity. Perfect quiescence comes only when the functioning of the imaginative mind is restrained and put an end to through meditation and Self-Knowledge. Only Brahma-Jnana can dispel the mental ignorance completely.

When true wisdom dawns the mind realizes its nature of Self-sufficiency and turns back to the Atma or the Source of Consciousness and rests as one with it in peace. This is the salvation of the individual, where the individual merges itself into the Infinite Consciousness and exists as the Absolute.

Excerpts from:

The Nature of Maya – Moksha Gita by Swami Sivananda and Commentary by Swami Krishnananda
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(Aug 14,2013) The Nature Of Avidya

 The Nature Of Avidya

Divine Life Society Publication: Moksha Gita  by Swami Krishnananda

Avidya is the same as Maya, but only in relation to the individual. Avidya is Malina-Sattwa or Sattwa polluted by Rajas and Tamas. There is a preponderance of distractive activity and stupor in Avidya. The individual is controlled by Avidya whereas Ishwara is not controlled by Maya. The force of Avidya limits the consciousness to such an extent that the individual is falsely made to believe that its body is the entire truth. Not only the body but even the objects and persons fictitiously connected with the interests of the body are also superimposed on the self and their loss or pain is considered as a real loss to the self itself.

There is a terrible degeneration of consciousness in the case of the individual earthly being. It first forgets the Reality; secondly it centres its consciousness in a localised body; thirdly it drags other external bodies also to its self and regards such of the few as are beneficial to its egoistic pleasures as its own self and consequently begins to hate those entities or individuals which are not connected with its interests or which are set in opposition to it. The grosser the form of consciousness, the greater  is the extent of superimposition; the greater the bondage, the lesser is the light and purity; the intenser the passions, the thicker the nescience and the denser the delusion.

The seat of Avidya is the Karana Sarira or the causal body of the soul. There is a dense clouding of Self-awareness due to the agitative vibrations of the intense desire for self-materialization. This is the story of self-imprisonment and acute suffering created by the self-manifestation of egocentric consciousness. The storehouse of the power of illusion and torment is the Anandamaya Kosha or the bliss-sheath of the soul which keeps in stock all the seeds of Samskaras and the psychic effects of all mental actions done by the individual. This stock of impressions maintains the future embodiments of ignorance and agony as an individual in terrestrial life. Avidya is therefore the mother of misery and the cause of the prison-life of the egoistic personality as a distinct individual of the vast universe.

Avidya is a false perception by which the ignorant Jiva takes the body and intellect as pure, permanent and a source of pleasure. "Avidya" is "that which does not exist." In fact, it is a conceit based on the belief that the objects perceived through externalization and the organs of such perception are all absolutely real in their forms. A shadow is taken to be the substance and the mirage is believed to be a tank. The dreadful fever of life is the agitation of the One Consciousness which dreams itself to be many. The universe is the dream of the subjective Self, the object of the reverie of Self-hypnotization.

The body, the mind the intellect and all the modifications of imagination are taken for granted as pure and perfect and a source of permanent happiness for the self. The self is the blissful eternal being and it wishes to find bliss in what it has merely imagined and what really does not exist. This delusion is reinforced by continuous activity and struggle to maintain the state of the self-imposed individuality and the energy necessary for the keeping up of the illusion is supplied from the fund of the source of ignorance, the Anandamaya Kosha. Even in the death of the body, this center of ignorance is not destroyed. It is carried to all bodies which are manifested by the self. This cycle of Samsara never comes to an end since the sheath of nescience adds to the old stock of Samskaras, the impressions of psychic actions performed in the daily life of the individual. Liberation from this cycle comes only through a snapping of the thread of thought through spiritual meditation.

The question why the drama of the world appears has not satisfactorily been answered. It can be understood as a self-imposition on absoluteness.  Just as a king acts the part of a beggar, out of his own free will on the stage in a drama, so also the Sat-Chid-Ananda Brahman acts the part of a Jiva in this drama of the world out of his own free-will for sport.

The individual or the Jiva does not know that it is playing a sport, but thinks that it is actually what it appears to be in the imagined garb. Here lies the bondage of the individual in contradiction to the Essence of Satchidananda which consciously appears to itself as the manifold universe. Whatever one thinks, that he becomes, for the source of imagination is the omnipotent Self. One who believes that he is Brahman becomes Brahman Itself.

The man with a defective vision has got a perverted perception of things. The Consciousness with its vision infected by the urge for materialization, objectification, diversification and self-multiplication conceives of the body as the Self and the Self as the body. The five sheaths are superimposed on the Atma and the Atma in turn is superimposed on the five sheaths which constitute the body. A straight rod appears bent like a bow when dipped in water and the disturbance on the surface of the water makes the sun in the sky appear shaky. The subjective defect makes the object also appear defective and thus the Eternal Brahman is seen to appear like the manifold cosmos merely on account of the clouding of consciousness and distraction of subjective awareness. The ignorance of the Jiva is colossal. The faith pinned on untruth transforms untruth to appear like truth and Jiva is thus deceived by its own thought-constructions.

When one gets knowledge of the Self (the wisdom of the Truth), this Avidya vanishes. It exists only until the melting away of egoism. The realization of the Self is the destruction of Avidya. The two acts are simultaneous. The act of realization is not a positive achieving but a negative destroying. It is not getting something but removing something. It is not an invention but a discovery. That is why the Upanishads take recourse to negative processes of world-denial and Brahman-realization.

The Self is not to be caught from outside, it is the innermost being of man. Those who run away from their Self are led astray by the force of Avidya into the pit of births and deaths. The spiritual aspirant should therefore restrain his mental functions. Then only the glorious Truth of the Self will be revealed.

Just as the mirror is dimmed by dirt, so Brahman is veiled by Avidya. Avidya is the origin of selfish endeavor and narrow interests which try to make the ego live long. When the requirements of the ego are supplied life on earth is prolonged and the stream of Samsara never comes to an end. The Sadhaka therefore is required to root out selfishness by denying the individual interests through self-abnegation and refusal to abide by personal cravings. A complete sacrifice of the self for the purpose of others' interests renders the Jiva fit to be alive to the higher knowledge. This is the method of Karma-Yoga which abstains from personal enjoyment of life and gives happiness to others.

Human beings are deluded by Avidya and they can be freed from its snares only through Sadhana for Perfection. Every way of spiritual effort is centered in the breaking open of the ego which is the root of the passion for living. Avidya is the progenitor of the succeeding afflictions of Asmita, Raga, Dwesha and Abhinivesha. These afflictions can be eradicated through a turning to the Source of Eternal Life through regulation of conduct and meditation on the spiritual Ideal.

Mind, senses, egoism, intellect and body are the effects of Avidya. If the cause is destroyed, the effects are destroyed by themselves. The Hathayogins start from the outside body to the inward truth by disciplining the physical sheath at first, but the Vedantins directly start from the innermost intelligence and break down the whole super-structure of the world-phenomenon.

When with the power of Viveka or discrimination the Absolute Self is asserted by the Vedantin, the mind is held standstill, the senses turn back to their psychic source, the ego is not allowed to make further arrogations and the Chitta or the store of Samskaras is held in check.

Thus the Vedantic Meditation which seeks to destroy the cause of Avidya, automatically overcomes the effects thereof, and burns the seeds of past impressions which are lodged in the heart. The knots of ignorance are rent asunder and the individual becomes the Supreme.

Excerpts from:

Moksha Gita – The Nature of Avidya by Swami Krishnananda

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