ANANDA - BLISS
In the final analysis,
what we all want is happiness. What is happiness? And more importantly, how can
we be truly happy? The search after happiness forms the field of enquiry in a
remarkable section of the Taittiriya Upanishad. What exactly is studied about
happiness? The answer is: whether happiness is born of sense contacts between
subject and object (as is usually understood) or whether happiness is the very
nature of the Self.
The Upanishad starts by
looking at sense enjoyments as the source of happiness.
The Upanishad proceeds
to construct a model of maximum human happiness. Imagine a young man,
physically strong, bursting with vitality and energy. He is highly educated and
morally upright. Old age, physical weakness, ignorance and moral corruption—all
causes of misery—are ruled out. Poverty, of course, is one of the greatest
barriers to the fulfillment of desires and so the Upanishad endows this
fortunate young man with plenty of cash—all the wealth of the world, in fact.
Now imagine the
happiness of this person—young, vital, energetic, noble, very highly educated
and extremely wealthy. This is the unit of human happiness: ‘ekah manusha
ananda’.
Is it possible to get
even greater happiness? Yes, but not in this human existence. For, this earthly
existence, these material objects of enjoyment and the very human frame itself,
all have their limitations. Beyond this familiar plane of existence there are
superior worlds, finer objects of enjoyment and powerful bodies designed for
greater enjoyment. Such is the manushya-gandharva-loka where happiness is one
hundred times the maximum happiness possible in a human body!
Even this is by no means
the end. The Upanishad speaks of an ascending ladder of lokas, or worlds, of
truly cosmic proportions. As one ascends to these higher heavens, happiness is
multiplied by a hundred times at each level. In the highest heavens, happiness
is millions and billions of times greater than the maximum of human
happiness!
How does one reach these
lokas? By the merit earned through the religious rituals prescribed in the
Vedas. Of course, one has to wait till death to travel to these higher
lokas.
Then comes the real
point of this analysis. The Upanishad says that all happiness is only a
reflection of the happiness of the Self, Atmananda.
The bliss of the Self is
reflected in the serene mind and experienced as happiness. Man, in his
ignorance, feels that happiness is due to the enjoyment of a variety of sense
objects and spends all his life trying to get happiness out of sense enjoyment.
If one can actually make the mind calm enough, it will be filled with
happiness—without need of external objects. What a great discovery — finding
the joy within!
An example
Water is placed in a pot
and then placed over a stove to be heated. It rises to boiling point. It is
then removed from the source of heat and left on the table. What happens to the
water? It returns to room temperature. Why? – because it is its nature to
be at room temperature.
In the same way it is
our nature to be happy. Due to the excitement from the outside, we are taken on
a swinging ride between pleasure and pain, joys and sorrows. When all
disturbing forces are removed, it is our nature to settle down to the “room
temperature” of happiness.
When we remove ourselves
from the heating source of all thought disturbances, of whatever cause and
whatever intensity, by the proper practice of Sadhana, we are sure to settle
down to the state of calmness, equipoise and balance which enables us to enjoy
the naturally exuding fragrance of happiness from our own Self. This is what
Vedanta is pointing our attention towards.
You are Sat Chit
Ananda
So ultimately we are
guided to experience ourselves in this manner: “I am and therefore I exist; I
know that I am; and I am blissfully aware that I am.”
This is the triple
definition of the Self – Sat-Chit-Ananda.
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