The Experience of Bliss

The Experience of Bliss

From Essays for Self-Improvement

By Swami Jyotirmayananda

The central task in all mystic movements is the unfoldment of Bliss – the deep-rooted goal of every human being. Known in Sanskrit as Ananda, this Ananda is Brahman, the Absolute. The Upanishads describe Brahman as Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss). Existence is Absolute Being, Knowledge is Pure Consciousness, and Bliss is Happiness beyond all human concepts.

There is a difference between the ordinary concept of pleasure, happiness or joy and the spiritual goal, Ananda. In the relative world, happiness Joy, and pleasure are sought, acquired in degrees, and lost. They come and go. Bliss, on the other hand, does not come and go; it is your essential nature.

In reality, then, Bliss is neither cultivated nor developed, but experienced through revelation. The scriptures give a simple analysis of what we call “pleasure.” At the mass level, people are aware of happiness that depends on objects experienced through the senses. But it does not take much observation to see how such human concepts of happiness and pleasure are based on illusion.

Scriptures state that happiness is not in objects, but within one’s own being. However, because of the illusion of desire, one overlooks their intrinsic happiness in favor of objects. For instance, through ignorance, you develop a fondness toward a particular object. This fond­ness allows a psychic energy to flow from your mind onto the object.

In itself, the object is neither desirable nor even interesting, but rather, fallacious and fictitious in name and form. As your desire flows, however, it envelops the object and makes it shine. Your externalized mind has thus invested this shine on the object. Having so painted the object, your own Self (Bliss) reflects in it. This is why you find the object so wonderful.

Further analyzing this, you seemingly re­ceive more happiness from those objects in which you have invested more mental energy than from those objects allotted less mental involvement. If you have longed for something for six years and suddenly get it, there is greater satisfaction (speaking from a worldly point of view) than if you had desired it for 24 hours. The greater the tension you build in your mind, the greater the illusion of finding happiness in it.

The moment you acquire a longed-for ob­ject, there is a temporary withdrawal of mental tension. In that relaxation, the Bliss of the Self passes through the veil of subtle desires. Just as sunlight gradually filters through as clouds thin out, Bliss shines through as mental tension created by one’s desires is released. And it is here that the limited mind makes the mistake of attributing the experience of happiness to the presence of the object. Then, because of the lack of enquiry and the consequent lack of understanding, one develops attachment towards that experience and wills to have it, secure it, and possess it forever. But usually, by the time they possesses and secure it, their mind drifts away from that source of happiness to some­thing else. This process continues all through one’s life, and into many future embodiments.

Raja Yoga gives insight into this appar­ent happiness, and simply states that all forms of pleasure are painful. The reasons are many: Firstly, tapa (feverish effort) is involved in getting an object. Such an effort is exhausting and can be carried on from one life to another.

Another reason, says Raja Yoga, is due to parinama (the results of running after objects). Every experience of pleasure creates samskaras (impressions). Samskaras create karmas, which, in turn, create embodiments. So, not only is the effort involved in finding the object of pleasure painful, every experience of pleasure creates an impression of raga (attachment), which is a klesha (affliction) that leads an individual to further karmic entanglements.

Another point concerns the moods of the mind that vary according to the gunas (modes of nature). For example, things that delight a person in a healthy (satwic) state of mind will not delight him when his mind is unhealthy (rajasic or tamasic). Things that are disgusting to a healthy mind are delightful to an unhealthy mind. A satwic mind seeks simplicity, lives a life of contentment and perseverance. A rajasic mind wants trouble, becomes entangled, runs after so many objects and becomes attached to them. A tamasic mind seeks pleasure through hatred and tension, confusion and turmoil. So, as long as the mind is dominated by changing gunas, the concepts of happiness will change so that no enduring happiness is found.

The Gita gives further insight into hap­piness determined by the three gunas. Satwic happiness is strange in that, at first sight, it tastes bitter, but if pursued, the resulting experience is nectar. Practicing meditation, turning away from evil association, reorienting the mind towards an internalized and reflective life, turning away from trivialities, accepting a life of simplicity rather than pompous van­ity-all seem bitter, to begin with. However, when persistently practiced, they turn out to be nectar in the end.

Rajasic pleasure, on the other hand, is like nectar in the beginning but poison in the end. For example, if you come into contact with a con artist who knows you have plenty of money, it is possible you will see honey flowing through every word he utters until you have been totally cheated and deceived. To begin with, it was wonderful, but in the end, it was frustrating and miserable. Rajasic pleasure is sought by an externalized mind – everything that is immediate seems wonderful. The mind does not use discrimination. It does not think.

Tamasic pleasure is perverted and arises in a mind that delights in causing suffering in oth­ers. This happiness is painful from beginning to end, but appears comfortable to the crude mind.

According to Vedanta, happiness is es­sential to every soul. A close examina­tion of deep sleep would convince you. Nature presents this illustration daily as an experience no one can live without. See the attention and concern given to experience sleep. If happiness depended on objects, sleep would be considered a deviation, a boring phenomenon. But this is not so. Note how a person prepares the bed with soft cushions and pillows. All this is not for the comfort of the pillows, but for a sleep where the pillows, the bed, the room, and even time and space are forgotten.

And, if someone suddenly wakes you, you get annoyed. Even if sleepy children are of­fered sweets with tempting cries of “Sweets! Sweets!” they wake up in tremendous annoy­ance – all because there is the experience of the Bliss of the Self in sleep. Although this Bliss manifests through a veil of ignorance, it still is sufficient proof that deep within there is a level, not dependent upon objects, from which happiness abundantly emerges.

Another important point about Bliss is that it is not a quantitative experience. Rather, Bliss is indivisible and eternal. So, in Self-realization, the Bliss that is experienced is infinite and endless. Chhandogya Upanishad dramatizes an episode about Sage Narada, who, before he attained Enlightenment, pursued various branches of learning, including dance, music, all the fine arts and subjects of science at that time. Still, he had not found the experi­ence of Bliss. He went to Sage Sanaka, who said, “Oh Narada, all that you have learned is finite.” And so comes the great Upanishadic af­firmation, “That which is infinite, in that alone is Bliss. There is no happiness in the finite.” In other words, as long as your consciousness is mingled with finite objects, you will not have the experience of Bliss, even though it is your essential nature. But in the state of Self-realization, one does not depend on the mind and senses. In that state, the entire personality is transcended and Infinite Bliss alone manifests.

Compared to that ocean-like Bliss, all pleasures of the world are but a drop. Taittiriya Upanis had describes degrees of Bliss. One can experience degrees of happiness. Sup­pose a human being has everything he desires because he is young and has the world under his control. Consider that as one unit of hap­piness. An ordinary person in the gandharva world experiences a hundred times that hap­piness. A god experiences a hundred times the happiness of a gandharva. A hundred times that godly experience is Indra’s. And so it goes on until the Upanishad concludes by saying that the Bliss experienced by one who is Self-realized is beyond the entire world of relativity.

The Bliss of the Self cannot be measured. Even the joy of thousands of Indras (Celestial Lords) is just a drop next to the desireless joy of Self-realization.

Self-realization is the goal. It is neither a blessing nor a boon. It is Yours. You are that Ananda – Bliss Absolute! May you realize that Bliss this very life!

“International Yoga Guide”, Vol. 56, NO. 10, June 2019

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