Bhakti Bliss

(Synopsis of a talk by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj given on August 10, 2009 in Bhakti Dham, Mangarh, explaining this kirtan verse)

There are three types of personalities – those under the control of Maya, those beyond or free from Maya, and the supreme controller of Maya, God.

Those who are under the control of Maya are all of us who are suffering due to the effects of time, the consequences of our actions, our nature, mental and physical pain, pain inflicted on us by others, and pain caused by our environment. When even the residents of the celestial abodes are unhappy, what could be said about the residents of this earth planet? Everyone is unhappy, agitated, dissatisfied and incomplete.

But that soul under Maya who attains God is called a Saint. He goes beyond Maya. Even though such a Saint lives in the world, he remains beyond all mayic suffering. He may become sick, but he does not experience suffering due to that. He may also die, but he does not experience the pain of death. His relatives may also die, but this doesn’t give him any emotional pain. He always remain absorbed in divine happiness.

Now a question arises. What is the difference between a soul under Maya and a Saint beyond Maya? The difference is that a soul under Maya does everything exclusively for his own happiness. The Vedas says that no wife does anything for her husband’s happiness, no husband does anything for his wife’s happiness, no child does anything for his father’s happiness, no father does anything for his child’s happiness, and so on. What does this mean? No one does anything for the happiness of another nor is he able to do anything. Everyone is selfish. What is their selfish desire? There is only one desire of all the uncountable souls in the uncountable worlds in this universe: spiritual happiness. That happiness is unlimited and never-ending.

Someone might say that he experiences happiness in this world. But the first attribute of this happiness is that it ends when a greater happiness is perceived.

For example, you are driving a simple Maruti car in India. You see a car coming towards you worth hundreds of thousands. The happiness you feel from your Maruti is reduced, “What kind of car is this! Now that’s a car… wow!” When we see someone who has a much more prestigious position than our own, the happiness we associate with our own position ends. Seeing a greater happiness in comparison to your own, makes your present happiness come to an end.

Secondly, regardless of from who or where we receive worldly happiness, it continuously decreases every moment. Initially you experience a lot of happiness from something. Slowly it reduces, becomes less, and then it comes to an end. You could even start to experience pain from the same object.

For example, a mother finds her son, who was missing for several days. The first time she hugs him, she hugs him tightly and experiences a lot of happiness. The second time she hugs him that pleasure is less. The third time she hugs him, it has reduced more. By the fourth time, she tells him, “Son, go outside and play.” Whether one is a king, a beggar or a holy man, everyone experiences this. Plus, everyone is deceiving each another by saying, “Everything is all right.” Not a single thing is right. Everything is wrong!

Selfish desires, lust, anger, and so on surround us continuously, and our physical and mental pain are in addition to this, but still we keep on smiling.

So we have only one desire – to attain happiness. Why is this so? We are not the body, but the soul. The individual soul is a part or fragment of God’s personality. The soul does not die. Only the body dies. A part has a natural love for what it originates from, and it is bound to love it, no matter if one claims to be an atheist, a believer, or an adherent to any other philosophy.

Why do people commit suicide? Even this they do for happiness. Is it so? Yes. When a person becomes completely disheartened due to worldly suffering, he thinks, “It would be better if I die. At least I will be free.” He repeatedly thinks this and finally one day he commits suicide.

When we took birth, the first thing we did was make a demand. We cried. We took out all the pain we underwent during childbirth. We cried and our mother smiled, “Oh, my baby is alive!” She smiled, which proves she was selfish. We cried and asked for happiness, but we didn’t know whom to ask. Since then until now we have only been asking for happiness. For the sake of happiness, we have used so many methods and have spoken so many flowery words to dupe others just so that our self-interest could be fulfilled. But we were not able to find out exactly where happiness is.

In an ashram, everyone is blind. The residents can’t see each other. One blind person said to another, “Please bring me to the bathroom.” The second one thought, “I can’t see at all.” They started walking, and right away ran into the furniture and fell down. Similarly, we are all duping one another. We are all asking for happiness from each other – a wife from her husband, a husband from his wife, a mother from her child, the child from his mother. But when both are beggars, what are they going to give each other?

A true Saint who is beyond Maya possesses that true divine happiness. The definition of happiness is that once it is attained, it could never be taken away.

A man eats one rasgulla (an Indian sweet drenched in sweet syrup). He feels extremely good. He eats another. His happiness reduces somewhat. He eats a third – it reduces even more. He eats a fourth – it further reduces. By the fifth rasgulla he is telling his friend, “Please stop! I will vomit if I eat any more!”

Daily we tolerate harsh words and insults from those closest to us, but we still stick with them. Everyone’s condition is exactly the same. As long as the soul remains under Maya, he could only remain selfish. This is irrefutable. All of our actions and plans will only be for the achievement of happiness, and only when we go beyond Maya, will we become complete and fulfilled. That fufillment will last forever.

“Sada pashyanti surayah.
Tadvishnoh paramam padam.”

That enlightened Saint feels the whole world is a form of bliss. He sees bliss in everyone, and experiences it everywhere and all the time. So what will he do? He will selflessly love and grace the souls. He will do this because his selfish desires have come to an end. Now whatever he does will be for the sake of others. In the same way, God is also always showering His grace on the souls.

Innocent people such as ourselves could argue that if God graces everyone, then why aren’t we being graced? God’s says, “You just aren’t asking for it. Your condition is such that your mind, intellect and body are mayic and impure, but still you can’t ask for grace? Ask for it properly and I will give it to you.” The soul asks, “But how should I do that?” God answers, “The same way you did earlier, when you immediately cried as a new-born baby. Just cry and ask for My grace. Do not show your pride.”

We just verbally ask for God’s grace. We go to the temple and say, “Oh my Lord, You alone are Mother and Father,” while we are still attached to our physical mother and father. Along with this we also say that God is all-knowing! This kind of artificiality doesn’t succeed in the spiritual area, even if it succeeds all the time in the mayic area.

So we have to learn how to ask for God’s grace properly. In order to do that, we have to decide and believe that the world was created for the body. God is for the soul. The word is made of material elements and so is the body. But no one made the soul. Rather, it is a part of God’s divine personality.

So the day we learn how to ask for God’s grace properly, we will receive God’s grace. After that, the soul who becomes free from Maya will act only to spiritually uplift others.

© Radha Govinda Samiti and Bhakti Bliss