Brahman as Bliss or Happiness
Absolute Being is the highest
perfection. Perfection is Bliss. The Self is the seat of Absolute Love, Love
without an object outside it. It is Bliss without objectification, for
Brahman-Bliss is not derived through contact of subject and object. Here, Love
and Bliss are Existence itself. That which is, is Bliss of Consciousness which
is Being. The highest aim of all endeavors is deliverance from the present
condition of limited life and the reaching of “the Bhuma which is Bliss”. “The
great Infinite alone is Bliss, there is no bliss in the small finite. Where
there is neither seeing nor hearing nor knowing of anything else which is a
second entity—that is the Infinite” (Chh. Up., VII. 23, 24). Absolute Existence
which is Absolute Knowledge is also Absolute Bliss. The Consciousness of Bliss
experienced is in proportion to the growth and expansion that we feel in the
conscious being of ourselves. Sat-chit-ananda
does not imply a threefold existence, but is Absolute Self-Identity. The world
appears to be real, intelligent and blissful, because it projects itself on the
background of something which is essentially Reality-Intelligence-Bliss. “That,
verily, is the essence. Only on getting this essence, does one become blissful.
Else, who would breathe and who would live—if there were no bliss in existence
(space)! Truly, this essence is the source of bliss” (Taitt. Up., II. 7). This
Essence is impartite bliss and is fearlessness, but, “if one would create even
the least difference in this, there is fear for him”.
“This
Being (of Brahman) is the supreme Bliss.” —Brih Up., IV. 3. 32.
The Mundaka Upanishad calls
Reality as the “Blissful Immortal”. According to the Taittiriya Upanishad, it
is the Reality “whose Self is Truth, which is the delight of life, the joy of
mind, the fullness of peace, the immortal.” The repeated declarations of sage
Yajnavalkya, “whatever is other than That, is wretched,” “he who departs hence
without knowing this Imperishable is miserable,” suggest the absolute supremacy
of the Bliss of Brahman, when compared to which even the highest heaven, even
the abode of the creator, is just darkness and sorrow. The natural phenomena of
hunger and thirst, pain and illusion, old age and death are said to be
overstepped by That most Exalted Being which is beyond all evil and sin.
Brahman is not “blissful” but “Bliss”, not “conscious” but “Consciousness”, not
“existent” but “Existence”. It neither decreases nor increases; it is the Ocean
of Plenitude, without an ebb or a flow, filled up to the brim of being,
allowing in nothing, giving out nothing. That is the real nature of the Self in
which one rises from the consciousness of something to the consciousness of
being everything, where the knower and the known, the enjoyer and the enjoyed
are one, in which one is lifted above all desires and sees nothing outside. It
is said that the Self, when in fast embrace with the Being whose essence is
Knowledge, knows nothing, either external or internal, for that is the True One
in which all desires are quenched, in which the Self alone is the desire, in
which all wants and sorrows are dissolved. This is the zenith of Bliss and
Wisdom, by a small fraction of which the whole universe is sustained. “One who
is conscious of the Bliss of Brahman fears not from anything.” “When one finds
his rest in That which is invisible, incorporeal, inexpressible, unfathomable,
then he has attained to Fearlessness.” For, this Atman is Silence and Peace, “shantoyamatma”.
Excerpts from:
Brahman as Bliss or Happiness - The
Realisation of the Absolute by Swami KrishnanandaArchives - Blog
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