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Our
worldly existence is a mixture of joys and sorrows. Some
experience more joy than sorrow and some more sorrow. Then there
may be a rare individual here or there who can control his mind
and keep smiling even in the midst of sorrow. On the other hand,
we do see a quite a number of people who have much to be happy
about but who keep a long face. If a man lacks for something it
means he is unhappy.
All
creatures long for everlasting happiness. There are two abodes of
eternal happiness. One is devaloga, the world of celestials or
paradise, the other is Atmajnana, the state of awareness of the Self. The Atman, the Self is bliss; it is the Brahman.
To realise this truth is to attain everlasting blessedness. But
this state, this joy supreme, is not experienced by the mind or
the senses. It is the highest, the most exalted state and it
transcends the senses and the mind; it is a state in which a man
becomes aware that "the body is not I, the intelligence is
not I, the consciousness is not I".
Paradise
is the place where happiness is always experienced by the mind
and the senses. Music and dance - music of the gandharvas, dance
by Rambha and Menaka - Kalpaka, the tree that grants all wishes,
Kamadhenu, the cow that grants all wishes, the garden known as
Nandana: devaloka means all these. It is indeed a playground and
there it is always joy. But a difference exists between the joy
known in paradise and the bliss experienced by the knower of the
Self. It is true that there is eternal happiness in paradise but
not so far the man who goes there because he will not be a
permanent resident of it. If he has earned a good ideal of merit
he will be able to reside there until he is reborn. When he has
enjoyed the fruits of his meritorious actions, the Lord will send
him back to earth. It is true that there are accounts in the
Puranas of mortals who earn a great ideal of merit and become
gods themselves to reside in the celestial world. But the same
Puranas also tell us that the gods themselves are not permanent
denizens of paradise. There are stories in these texts of the
celestials being hounded out of paradise by demons like Surapadma
and Mahisasura and of Indra, their king, himself being pushed
down to earth to undergo suffering there.
On
a hypothetical basis, eternal happiness may be ours in svarga or
paradise. But there is no instance of anyone having actually
lived there permanently nor does it seem possible for anyone to
do so.
Happiness
gained through the senses is derived from external objects. These
cannot be ours for all time. There were occasions when Indra had
to suffer all by himself when he lost everything, including
Kamadhenu, the Kalpaka tree, Airavata and even Indrani. So the happiness associated with paradise, which
is dependent on external objects, can never be enduring.
"Sadananda" or eternal bliss is for him who has neither
anything external nor internal and who dwells in his Self as a
sthita-prajna ( a man of steady wisdom) as explained by the Lord
in the Gita, one who remains
nailed to his Self. The joy experienced by Indra is but a droplet
of the vast ocean of Atmic bliss, so says the Acarya in his
Manisa Pancakam: "Yad Saukhyambudilesalesata ime Sakradayo
nirvrtah".
According
to Upanisads you will have external bliss if the senses and the
mind are removed in the same way as you draw off the rib from a
stalk of corn and remain just the Atman. It needs great courage to pluck out the body and
the senses realising that " I am not the body. Its joys and
sorrows are not mine". Such courage is not earned without
inner purity. Conduct of religious rituals is meant for this, for
cittasuddhi ( purity of the consciousness ). There are forty
samskaras to refine a man with Vedic mantras and to involve him
in the rites associated with those mantras. These are the first
steps towards the indissoluble union of the individual self with
the Absolute - it is Advaitic mukti, non - dualistic release.
We
must strive to become inwardly pure by the performance of works.
Then, with the inner organs ( antah - karana ) also cleansed, we
must mediate on the Self and become one with It. This is the
concept of Sankara. If a man has such a goal before him and keeps
performing rituals throughout ( even without becoming a sannyasin
) he goes to Brahmaloka on death. During the great deluge when
Brahma is absorbed in the Brahman he too attains non - dualistic
liberation, so says Sankara. But if a man performs rituals for
the sake of rituals without keeping before him the goal of
oneness with the Brahman he will be rewarded with paradise, but
not the paradise that is eternal. Though the stay be brief he
will enjoy greater happiness there than on earth. It is samskaras
that earn a man heaven.
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"Hindu Dharma" is a book
which contains English translation of certain invaluable and
engrossing speeches of Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamiji (at
various times during the years 1907 to 1994).
For a general background, please see here
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