And while I have your attention… the Vaishnavites say moksa is merely the blinding effulgence of Krishna called the “brahmajyoti” which is made strictly of the sat portion of satchitananda and therefore not completely fulfilling. So the jiva who is in the brahmajyoti must descend back into materiality in order to fulfill the desires which will naturally arise when one lacks knowledge of Krishna. (Krishna is completely fulfilling but His effulgence apparently gets boring after a while.) Of course, this story reveals an embarrassing absence of understanding of moksa but it is a lot of fun to deconstruct. I’m wondering where this explanation originates, as well as the term “brahmajyoti.” If brahmajyoti exists it seems like it’s a misunderstanding of the anandamaya kosha.

James: Brahma means “limitless” and jyoti means “light.” Brahmajyoti is the light of awareness. It is pure knowledge, the knowing principle. It is also experiential: when the mind is sattvic awareness reflects on the subtle body with particular beauty/brilliance – also called tejas. Brahmajyoti is ananda experienced in the waking aspect of the deep sleep state. The Vaisnavas – God bless their pointed little heads – have mixed up brahma vidya, i.e. Vedanta, to suit their beliefs. They are dualists. Awareness, Krishna, has no portions. Sat, chit and ananda are words whose implied meaning point to Krishna. Speaking on the level of duality, if you experience sat you experience chit and you experience ananda. The self is one. Why would a jiva that was “in” Brahmajyoti want to descend into samsara unless it was ignorant of the fact that Brahmajyoti is its nature, which dualists are. All experiences, spiritual and otherwise, get boring for jivas who don’t know who they are.

~ James