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Chapter 12
AtmAnanda
The Bliss of the Self
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10
Chapter 11
The yogi experiences the bliss of brahman as stated in the previous chapter. In this chapter the bliss experienced by the unenlightened person is examined.
In the bRRihadAraNyaka upaniShad it is said that every one loves others only for his or her own happiness and not for the happiness of the person loved. The husband, wife, son, wealth, animals and all other things are loved only because they give happiness. This is evident from the fact that when a person�s wife or son acts in a manner contrary to his wishes, he does not like them. Even an inveterate miser is willing to spend all his money to cure himself of a life-threatening disease, showing that his love of himself takes precedence over his love of money. All other things are loved only as long as they contribute to one�s own happiness. So all other persons and things are only means to one�s own happiness, and are not desired for their own sake; but happiness is desired for its own sake and not as a means to some thing else. A child, when kissed by its father feels pain by being pricked by the father�s bristly beard and cries, but the father goes on kissing the child because he feels happy thereby. This is a clear instance to show that all love is only for one�s own happiness. Love of the means to happiness shifts from one object to another, but love of one�s own Self ever remains the same. Even when a person desires to end his life because of poverty, disease, humiliation or any other reason, it is the body that he wants to get rid of and not the Self. Thus the Self is the dearest to every one.
The word �Self� is used in three different senses, namely, figurative (gauNa), illusory (mithyA) and primary (mukha). In the sentence �Devadatta is a lion�, the identification of Devadatta with a lion is figurative. The purport of this sentence is that Devadatta possesses some of the characteristics of a lion such as courage, majesty, etc. At the same time, the difference between the two is also clearly understood. In the scriptures, sometimes a son is identified as the Self of his father. This identification is figurative.
When a post is wrongly taken to be a man, the identification is illusory. The identification of the Self with the body and mind, which constitute the five sheaths falls under this category.
The primary meaning of the word �Self� is the pure unconditioned witness Consciousness or nondual brahman.
When a person desirous of attaining heaven performs the prescribed yaj~na, he knows that it is his subtle body that will go to heaven and not his physical body. He thus looks upon his subtle body as his Self.
An aspirant for liberation strives for the realization that he is the pure unconditioned Self. Here the word �Self� is used in its primary meaning.
Supreme love is felt for the primary Self. One loves everything related to the Self, but the love for them is limited and conditional on their giving happiness. No love is felt for other things.
The degree of love towards various objects of enjoyment varies according to their proximity to the Self. A son is dearer than wealth, one�s own body is dearer than one�s son, the sense-organs are dearer than the body, life is dearer than the sense-organs and the Self is dearer than everything else.
A married couple intensely desires to have a son and is very unhappy till the wife conceives. After conception there is great worry about safe delivery. When the child is born there are anxieties about its health and whether all its faculties such as eyesight, hearing, etc., would be sound. When the child grows up there is worry about whether he would be intelligent and industrious in studies. Thereafter there is anxiety about whether he would earn well and become rich or suffer from poverty and also whether he would lead a good moral life or not. There is also anxiety about whether he would be healthy and live long or die prematurely. Thus there is no end to the sorrows of parents. The only way to avoid sorrows is to avoid attachment to persons and things and to focus his love on the Self. It should be noted here that attachment is different from love. Attachment puts one at the mercy of the person or thing to which the attachment is directed. But love, which by definition is free from any selfish motive, makes a person independent of the object of love. Love directed equally towards all living beings ennobles.
Love for the supreme Self is in effect love for all creatures, since they are not different from the supreme Self.
Since the Self is of the nature of bliss as well as Consciousness, the question arises as to why bliss is not experienced in all modifications of the mind and only Consciousness is experienced. This can be answered by taking the example of a lamp. When a lamp burns, it emits both heat and light but only light fills the room and not heat.
When the Self is both bliss and Consciousness, how is it that when Consciousness is revealed in a mental modification, bliss is also not revealed at the same time? This is answered by pointing out that though an object has colour, odour, taste, and touch, only one of these properties is cognized by a particular sense organ. It is not correct to say that colour, odour, and other properties of a flower are different from each other and so the example given is not applicable because bliss and Consciousness are not different from each other. The properties of a flower are not different from one another. If it is said that they are different because they are cognized by different sense-organs, then it must be pointed out that there is similarly a seeming difference between bliss and Consciousness brought about by difference in the composition of the mental state. When sattva guNa predominates in the mind, both bliss and Consciousness are revealed, while when rajas guNa predominates, only Consciousness is revealed and bliss is obscured.
The Lord says in the bhagavadgItA that there are two paths to liberation. One is yoga and the other is the path of knowledge.
One who knows that the Self is dearest does not desire any external object of enjoyment. Nor does he have aversion towards any thing because he sees no object inimical to himself.
End of Chapter 12
Chapter 13
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