Bliss or Ananda is to do with continuity, not quantity

[dattaseva]

Generally, people think that excessive happiness is Ananda/bliss. It is a wrong notion.

Bliss is not a quantitative aspect of happiness. It only refers to a point of time i.e., one should be continuously happy during the entire span of one’s lifetime. If you take the quantitative aspect of happiness, a human being (soul) is nowhere near God. The happiness of God is as large as an Infinite Ocean, while the happiness of a human being is just a drop in it. The Veda says the same (Sa eko Brahmana Anandah…).

The power of God is unlimited and therefore, withstands the power of this happiness-ocean. The power of a soul is limited and it can withstand only a little bit of happiness. A lottery ticket seller told an impoverished farmer that he won the first prize of one million dollars. The farmer immediately died due to a heart attack since he was unable to withstand the force of such excessive happiness.

The only aspect in which a person can become exactly like God is by maintaining the continuity of happiness without any break in his/her life. God is continuously happy with His creation and never becomes unhappy. Similarly, if you can also be happy continuously throughout your life by deriving entertainment from different incidents in your surroundings, you’ll become equal to God from all angles in this single aspect, which is the continuity of happiness.

When tragedy arrives, you have to enjoy it like enjoying a hot chilly dish. In such case, the continuity of your enjoyment is not at all disturbed. You must enjoy even your own death, which is like the hottest chilly dish. After you die, only your body is destroyed and not your self. Similarly, when the world is destroyed, God is not destroyed and is only entertained in the form of Rudra.

If you are unable to enjoy tragedy in this way, at least be aware that the experience of tragedy is going to give you the real taste of happiness in the future. Such awareness will not make you unhappy internally. If you’re suffering by eating a chilly dish, you’ll still continue to eat it if you know that this experience will provide a reinforced taste of the next sweet. This kind of awareness will boos your confidence even during situations of suffering.

Alternatively, you can think that God favored you with this suffering and has wiped out all your bad deeds through such an experience. Or, you can also think that the suffering faced by you is very little; it has been given by God just to save the doctrine of karma theory, and that a whole lot more of suffering that you had to undergo is now canceled. All these are just psychological tricks to make you happy while suffering.

Anyway, by hook or crook, you must maintain your happiness continuously by seeing every negative angle in a positive direction. If you can achieve this, you become God in just this particular aspect of continuous happiness. After all, the final aim of God is also to be continuously happy through being constantly entertained by His creation. Once this final goal is achieved by you, all other aspects of God, which are only the means to achieve such a goal, become zero. The superpowers of God to create, maintain and destroy the world are ineffective and immaterial once the goal of continuous happiness is achieved.

A king has many powers, including that of immense wealth, an army to fight a war, etc. But all such powers are only the means to achieve continuous happiness. A beggar is also continuously happy. Now, in this aspect of continuous happiness, both the king and beggar are exactly equal. The entire kingdom of the king becomes zero in this aspect, because the kingdom is only an instrument to keep the king continuously happy. Hence, if this aspect of continuous happiness is achieved by any human being, irrespective of surrounding incidents, he becomes equal to God. This is described as the state of God in the Gita (Esha Brahmi sthitih...). This is the only aspect in which a soul becomes God, nullifying all the other aspects of God. This provision has been created by God for rigid children such as Advaita philosophers who believe that they themselves are God. And God provides everything desired by all of His children.

But remember that you should confine yourself only to this single aspect of continuous happiness. Since you have become God in this aspect, do not think that you are God in all the other aspects. If you cross the boundaries of this single aspect, you stand nowhere before God. Even in the aspect of happiness, you should confine yourself only to continuity and not go near the quantitative aspect of happiness.

[sunnyray]

Originally Posted by dattaseva

When tragedy arrives, you have to enjoy it like enjoying a hot chilly dish. In such case, the continuity of your enjoyment is not at all disturbed. You must enjoy even your own death, which is like the hottest chilly dish.

I don't think anyone can really enjoy when tragedy arrives, unless they are enlightened to such a degree that they see through all the veils of illusion (maya). And hardly anyone incarnated into a physical body can do that. Other than that, very nice explanation on the subject of bliss.

[sky]

Ānanda (Sanskrit: आनन्द) literally means bliss or happiness. In the Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad gita, ānanda signifies eternal bliss which accompanies the ending of the rebirth cycle.

But everyone has there own interpretation.....

[dattaseva]

Originally Posted by sky123

Ānanda (Sanskrit: आनन्द) literally means bliss or happiness. In the Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad gita, ānanda signifies eternal bliss which accompanies the ending of the rebirth cycle.

But everyone has there own interpretation.....

True. Many do interpret the term in their own ways. Can you tell me what's yours?

[acorn]

A parrot can learn many words ...it does not however have understanding of those words....
without DIRECT perception...it's just words...and they ring hollow

sorry ...a bit of brutal truth is sometimes needed
take it with a grain of salt....I'm nobody.. ( I was told my writing sucks anyway)
hehe it's all good....peace out

Love
acorn
P.S. could you believe that this is meant to be constructive?
feel free to rip into me if you like...I've worn the A** hat before ..just ask my family

[sky]

Originally Posted by acorn

A parrot can learn many words ...it does not however have understanding of those words....
without DIRECT perception...it's just words...and they ring hollow

sorry ...a bit of brutal truth is sometimes needed
take it with a grain of salt....I'm nobody.. ( I was told my writing sucks anyway)
hehe it's all good....peace out

Love
acorn
P.S. could you believe that this is meant to be constructive?
feel free to rip into me if you like...I've worn the A** hat before ..just ask my family

Your brutal true sounds like wisdom to me

[sky]

Originally Posted by dattaseva

True. Many do interpret the term in their own ways. Can you tell me what's yours?

I haven't thought about it really, I try not to think to much, mindfullness suits me better

[dattaseva]

Originally Posted by acorn

A parrot can learn many words ...it does not however have understanding of those words....
without DIRECT perception...it's just words...and they ring hollow

sorry ...a bit of brutal truth is sometimes needed
take it with a grain of salt....I'm nobody.. ( I was told my writing sucks anyway)
hehe it's all good....peace out

Love
acorn
P.S. could you believe that this is meant to be constructive?
feel free to rip into me if you like...I've worn the A** hat before ..just ask my family

I agree. An animal only responds to sounds and a parrot only repeats what others say. But a human can definitely 'understand' and act upon the underlying 'meaning'.

Direct perception is the goal, undoubtedly. Nevertheless, you may never know what the goal is until you're pointed at in the right direction.

A bull that had lost its way to the village spent the night trying with its might to try the path; it just went around in circles. Another bull sought a guide and found the village within 10 minutes.

Similarly, only with the right spiritual knowledge/theory can one apply the required efforts that yield the best fruit. There are three parts to the spiritual life—yourself, the goal and the path required to reach the goal. Without knowing all three parts completely, we're all just wild bulls running around in circles.

And just to clarify, the original message on bliss is from a Swami, who I believe has the direct perception you speak of. I may not have experienced this bliss, but that does not mean I shouldn't try to spread the knowledge.

One becomes a parrot when one repeats another's words carelessly; one imbibes 'knowledge' and acts upon it when one constantly shares the words of a realized soul with others after deep analysis. The actions in both cases may seem similar, but it's the intention that matters.

[Miss Hepburn]

Um, happy is happy...no doubt.
Bliss is bliss...satchitananda....whole different ball game.
I know both....big difference.

[acorn]

Sky talks about mindfulness ...I realized that I did not use this word very often ..but that it is also my approach ...mindfulness to me is very much like japa..or a mantra in that you try to keep the mind on one thing or subject to the exclusion of the myriad of thoughts that pop into the mind...so mindfulness to me is like a rudder on a ship...it steers me away from the sandbars so that my ship will not run aground...funny how different words can shake the tree so to speak


Love
acorn