Moksha and the Gita: an American Swami's Perspective

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Here is the beginning of a Commentary on Moksha in the Gita from an

American Swami of the Giri order:

 

Those of us born in America were virtually baptized in the word

Freedom. But freedom means many things, some of them specious in the

case of dictatorial governments and individuals. Freedom has many

levels. Some are satisfied with the freedom to buy whatever color or

length of shoelace they want. Others with a freedom to do wrong that

is not freedom at all but license. According to the development of the

individual, so will be his concept of freedom and the kind of freedom

he desires. Krishna speaks to those ready to graduate from earthly

experience, saying:

 

" United with Brahman, cut free from the fruit of the act, a man finds

peace in the work of the spirit. Without Brahman, man is a prisoner,

enslaved by action, dragged onward by desire. " 1 Sivananda gives a more

literal version: " The united one (the well poised or the harmonized),

having abandoned the fruit of action, attains to the eternal peace;

the non-united only (the unsteady or the unbalanced), impelled by

desire and attached to the fruit, is bound. " Nevertheless,

Prabhavananda gives exactly the intended import of the Sanskrit.

 

Those who have united their consciousness with Brahman are immediately

freed from the law of cause and effect, of action and reaction. Karma

ceases to exist for them. They are not compelled to act by past karma,

nor do their present actions produce any karma that would result in a

future compulsion to action. This is true freedom. Acting in full

awareness of Spirit, they have perfect peace. Although moving within

this world, the center of their consciousness is in the transcendental

realm of Inaction.

 

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