Bliss of God Is the Goal

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

[Dr. Nikhil asked: How to avoid attention towards bliss? People are attracted to bliss and not to God, if God does not give bliss to them.]

Swami replied: The Veda describes the concept of bliss in the Ananda Valli. Certainly, you must discuss about the subject of bliss. You must avoid the attention of attaining the bliss by yourself. But you must concentrate on the service to God that gives bliss to Him. This means that doing service to God in whatever way you like is not correct because God does not require your service in any way like a human being. One has to render the service in whatever manner God likes it. The service should be for the pleasure of God and not for the requirement of God because God has no requirement. Even pleasure is not necessary for God because He is the infinite of ocean of bliss (Naanavaaptam… Gita). He is only testing the devotion of the devotee regarding its quality and magnitude of intensity. God always asks the devotee to sacrifice the item with which he has the strongest bond. If the devotee succeeds in this test, God is not pleased for attaining that sacrificed item, but God is pleased for the love in the attitude of total sacrifice towards Him.

For example, God came in disguise to Saktuprastha, who was without food for several days along with his family in severe drought. In that situation, the strongest bond will be naturally for food to save the life. He got somehow a little food and he was ready to eat it along with his family. God came in human form to test him. The guest asked for the entire food to eat. Saktuprastha gave the entire food and proved that God is more valuable than life. The human form of the God in such situation with such extreme abnormal behavior gave a hint about God. Here, God is pleased not due to the food offered by him since God has no hunger. Here, God is pleased only towards the attitude of total practical sacrifice through this incident. God in human form as Lord Krishna asked Dharma Raja to tell a lie and God tested him whether he can sacrifice the bond with justice for God. In this case, Dharma Raja acknowledged Krishna as God already. But, for him, justice is above God and so he has limited real love to God. God is also pleased with him but the pleasure of God was also limited in giving the fruit. Saktuprastha got Brahma Loka for his unlimited real love, whereas Dharma Raja got the temporary heaven for his limited real love.

Therefore, the unlimited real love can give bliss to the Lord and the Lord will in return also loves you in unlimited manner. If the devotee can violate anybody and anything including the justice for God, God will also violate anybody and anything including His own constitution of justice for the sake of devotee. If the devotee cannot violate certain bonds and justice, God also cannot violate the cycle of deeds for the sake of devotee. The quality and quantity of bread will be according to the quality and quantity of the flour used to prepare it. However, one should not concentrate on the bliss of God thinking that God will bless him in return. The concentration on the bliss of God should be natural and spontaneous and really one should not aspire any fruit from God in return. If such idea is hidden in the devotee, God will keep silent after receiving the service without any reaction. The real color of the devotee will come out since God knows any secret hidden even in the subconscious state. One should not say such love is not possible. This is not correct. It is possible since such unlimited real love is seen in the case of the love of parents towards their child. You are working day and night for the sake of your child. At the end, whatever is stored by your work is totally dedicated to your child. Here, both these are the climax stages of Karma Samnyasa and Karma Phala Tyaga. The love to child is strongest like gold medal. The love to wife or husband is real but limited and is the next silver medal. The God is worshipped in these two lines only (Aham Bijapradah pitaa…, Gatih bhartaa… Gita). Between these two, the gold medal overcomes the silver medal. If the wife asks the husband to give all the property to her only, the husband sometimes may give it with the confidence that she will give to his child because she is also the mother of the same child. If the husband has any doubt on her love to his child, the husband will not agree to this. He may give some little property for her maintenance but the rest major property is given to his child only.

The sacrifice of fruit of work is the acid test of the reality and limitations of the love. Hence, the Veda gave topmost place to this sacrifice of wealth only (Dhanena Tyagena Ekena…) and the Gita gave the final place to the sacrifice of fruit of work. Since work is the source of the fruit, sacrifice of work is also as good as the sacrifice of fruit; especially in the case of saints, one can do only the former. Any way the desire of God is the most important in sacrifice because it tests the devotee about his or her total preparedness for the total sacrifice (Sarva Bhavena… Gita). Krishna desired for the dust of the feet of a devotee to be applied on His forehead to use it as medicine for His headache. The fulfillment of the desire of God can only give Him the maximum pleasure because that only proves your readiness for the total sacrifice. Devotees offered several medicines alternatively to remove the head-ache but Krishna did not accept and insisted only on the foot-dust. But, the devotees including His eight wives feared for the subsequent hell in giving the foot-dust. Only Gopikas gave immediately their foot-dust in abundance in spite of the warning from Narada regarding the subsequent hell for giving foot-dust. They told the sage Narada that they do not care for the hell to please the Lord through His desire. The omniscient Lord catches straightly your nerve of weakest point at the very outset so that the other weak points need not be tested in which you have every probability of success.

Bliss (Brahma Ananda) is defined as the continuous human-happiness (Maanusha Ananda) multiplied by infinity. As per the Veda, the human happiness is that of a king of this entire earth with full strength and health (Saeko Manusha-Anandah…). But the king also is not having this happiness continuously because several troubles often interrupt this. Hence, this human happiness must be made continuous and the Veda does not mention this continuity while describing the human happiness. The continuity of human happiness can be attained by the clue of enjoying the sweet and hot dishes in meals or comedy and tragedy in a cinema. This divine clue is inherent to the state of God and its successful application continuously depends on the divine knowledge given by God along with His grace. By further unlimited grace of God, this human happiness gets multiplied by infinity and then such human happiness is converted into bliss (Saeko Brahmana Anandah… Veda). The final test of such final stage is that one shall be happy and enjoy the death also, which is the most serious problem (Sthitvaasyaamantakalepi… Gita). The soul should rise above the three qualities. The soul is pure awareness and is beyond the three types of feelings. The pure awareness itself is one of the three qualities, called as Sattvam. But, any quality is never hundred percent pure. The other two always exist in it in traces. Hence, the soul is one quality in quantitative view, but it is a group of three qualities in the qualitative analysis. Mula Maya is the primary energy, which is the equilibrium state of the three qualities, which cannot be isolated in that state. This is called as Pradhanam by the Sankhya school. It is Sattvam due to its potentiality to become awareness, Rajas due to the nature of dynamism and Tamas due to ignorance about the unimaginable God.

This Mula Maya is expressed into Sattvam or awareness (Jnana), Rajas or work form of inert energy like light, heat, sound etc., (kriya) and Tamas or condensed inertial force, called matter (bala). Each one of these forms is one in quantitative analysis but three in qualitative analysis. Each form is called by the name of a single quality due its predominance. These three expressed forms constitute the second plane of Maha Maya. Again, each one of these forms is expressed as three qualities. Awareness is expressed as feelings of three qualities. Work form of inert energy is expressed as works of three qualities. Matter is also expressed as three types of food. The feelings (gunas), deeds (karmas) and forms of matter (rupas) constitute the third plane, called Maya. The lower plane is always relatively true with respect to the higher plane. Therefore, the pure awareness or soul is qualitatively made of three qualities (Naanyam Gunebhyah… Gita) though it is only Sattvam by predominance, it is expressed as three feelings (qualities) and is beyond the three feelings (qualities) and in this sense, the soul is beyond the three qualities or feelings (Gunebhyascha Param… Gita). Any item is three (qualitatively) with respect to its source of higher plane and the same item is one (quantitatively) with respect to its effects of lower plane. The three qualities in the plane of Maya appear as good and bad or happiness and misery. Certainly, the soul or pure awareness being the higher plane can be the absolute reality with respect to the lower plane and hence, the soul can be beyond the twins (good and bad or happiness and misery). Therefore, the soul is authorized to enjoy the twins in the world (plane of Maya) and can maintain itself happy continuously. The clue is thus perfect in the systematic scientific analysis but its successful and continuous application certainly requires the grace of God being the inherent owner of the clue. The owner of an industrial clue is not inherently related to that clue. This divine clue is inherently related to the state of God and is not the clue of external subject as in the case of the industrial secret. Unless the state of God (Brahmi Sthiti) is granted by God, its inherent clue cannot be practically attained. This clue is a part and parcel of the state of God.

On self-realization if the Advaitin achieves the state of God, the above inherent clue must also be attained simultaneously without any further effort. In such case, the Advaitin must be in bliss throughout his life in this world. But if you see the practical life of the Advaitin, it is not so. Even Advaitin-saint becomes serious and jealous with the opponent in the argument. He should really enjoy even his defeat in the argument. Shankara accepted the point raised by the cobbler and fell on His feet. These Advaitins are neither fully ignorant nor fully learned. They are like the teen-age students of high school who have just crossed the elementary school where they have accepted the existence of unimaginable God through unimaginable miracles. Accepting God is knowledge but thinking themselves as God is ignorance. The parents always enjoy with their teen-age children. God has continuous enjoyment with these Advaitin-children because they will never here the truth completely. They are better than atheists but lesser than devotees. To hear the truth, one should be either fully ignorant or fully learned. Even Brahma refused to preach these people (Brahmaapi Na Ranjayati… Bhartruhari). Only Lord Shiva came forward in the human form as Shankara to deal with these people. The Buddhists and the followers of Purvamimamsa were atheists and learned scholars in scriptures.

To deal the teen-aged school students, psychology is more needed than the deep true divine knowledge. Shankara has to act as Guru than a scholar. The school-teacher is always given training in teaching based on psychology. The college-lecturer or university-Professor need not be trained in teaching because the students are grown-up in grasping power. They become learned to grasp the truth and hence, the depth in the knowledge of the preacher is more needed here. But, in the level of school, the talent in teaching based on the psychology of the teen-aged students with half knowledge, is more needed. Shankara acted more as Guru than the scholar, though He was the topmost scholar. He made the atheists to accept the existence of God by twisting the true knowledge. He established the existence of self to Buddhists who believed in existence of everything as nothing (Shunya Vada). He made the followers of Purvamimamsa who already accepted the existence of self (Buddhists have already joined them in this aspect due to Shankara.), accepted the existence of God since self is told to be God. If Shankara really means that self is really God, He did not add any extra point to Purvamimamsa except that He has named the self by another word ‘God’. Trapped by this twist, the atheists climbed the first step (accepting the existence of God) from the ground. Now, Shankara told the people on the first step that they should worship the Lord (Eshwara) to become God practically. This means Eshwara is different from the soul, since the soul has to worship the Lord. He maintained this difference between the self and the Lord through the angle of relativity (Vyahara Dasha). At the same time, He consoled the atheists that they are already God in the absolute sense (Paramartha Dasha). This is the biggest twist made by Shankara to make atheists worship the Lord continuously and simultaneously maintained the attraction by the chocolate of child that they are God already! He maintained the twist for atheists and the truth for scholars simultaneously in the same doctrine. This shows that there can be no more genius other than Shankara.

If you analyze the above twist from the point of scholars to reveal the truth, you will be amazed to realize the truth simultaneously without disturbing the doctrine. If the soul is Brahman in the absolutely sense, it must be Eshwara simultaneously in the plane of relativity or creation. The same Brahman in the absolute plane became Eshwara in the reference to the world. Now, the individual soul is in the world and has reference to the creation. If the soul is really Brahman in the absolute plane in which the reference to the world is absent, it should be Eshwara simultaneously with reference to the creation. When the soul fails to be Eshwara in the world, how can it be Brahman beyond the world? A military colonel is the head of the military office. He is a soldier fighting with gun in the war. Unless he is soldier in the war, he cannot claim himself to be the head of the military office as colonel. If he fails to be a soldier in the war and cannot catch the gun, how can he claim to be the promoted colonel from the post of the soldier or head of the military office? The colonel or head of the military office must have the hidden potency of the soldier simultaneously. Similarly, Brahman beyond the creation has the hidden potency of Eshwara, which is expressed as Eshwara in creation. When the potency is not expressed in creation, it must be concluded that the potency is absent and hence, the soul must be called as Brahman without the potency of Eshwara. This means that the colonel lost the potency to act as a soldier in the war and then he is no more a colonel.

The definition of Brahman in the Veda and the Brahma Sutras is only based on the concept of potency of Eshwara i.e., Brahman is that which creates, controls and destroys the world. The potency may not be inherent characteristic of Brahman because no inherent characteristic of Brahman can be known since Brahman (Parabrahman) is unimaginable. In absence of knowledge of any inherent characteristic, you have to take the constantly associated characteristic i.e., the potency as Eshwara to be the only possible inherent characteristic of Brahman. Though the potency of Eshwara is the inherent characteristic of divine Maya, due to constant association of the divine Maya with Brahman, you have to take the divine Maya as the inherent characteristic of Brahman. Otherwise, if you say that the soul is the unimaginable Brahman, your soul must be unimaginable to you. If you say that the knowledge of self exists to self since the knowledge of Brahman exists to Brahman, the absence of the potency of Eshwara attacks your concept since the scriptures says that Brahman is the cause and controller of the world through divine Maya (Indromayaabhih… Veda). Let yourself also control the world through divine Maya since we have no objection to you to use the same divine Maya in this world for giving us the proof. The same Brahman acting as Eshwara in the world controls the Sun through its constantly associated divine Maya (Bhishodeti Suryah… Veda). Then, the soul should also control the Sun through the same divine Maya in this world. But the soul is insulted by even the hot radiation of sun in severe summer.

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