Bhakti Bliss

(Synopsis of a talk given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj in Ganganagar, Rajasthan, India, on November 27, 2009)

When you pour ghee (clarified butter) on burning wood, for a moment it appears as if the fire has gone out, then all of a sudden the flames rise even higher. The disease of desire is like this. If your desire is fulfilled, this gives rise to greed. If your desire is not fulfilled, this gives rise to anger. Either one or the other will happen. If you form a desire, you are caught. Now you can’t escape from suffering.

You all experience this daily in your homes. You formed a desire that your son should follow your instructions. You said to him, “Son, bring me a glass of water.” He ran to bring it to you. “What an excellent son I have!” Five minutes later you said, “Son, just bring my glasses.” He kept sitting. “I said to bring my glasses.” He continued to sit. “Are you deaf? Didn’t you hear what I said?” Still he remained sitting. “I have a demon for a son!” You became angry, and it happened in one second.

Right now you are all listening to what I am saying and smiling. If a stranger were to enter this room he would think, “All the people seated here must be Saints!” But if someone suddenly pushed you, you would become angry. Anger remains hidden inside, just waiting for a chance to attack. We are so foolish that we don’t think that the anger we have inside will first cause us harm. If in anger we verbally abuse someone, hit them or think badly about them, this first harms us. We burn in anger. Our atma-shakti is diminished. Our mind becomes agitated. We practically experience this every day. This isn’t just something that is described in the scriptures.

We suffer due to great desires and also from the smallest desires. Everyone is suffering and everyone is lying about it. “How are you?” “I’m alright.” Alright? Not one thing is right with you – everything is wrong! We smile and say, “Everything’s fine!” What is fine? From morning til night family members are fighting, and whatever your personal suffering may be is separate from that. What you express externally to others is much less than what you feel. A father thinks, “What did I do to get a son like this? But if I say anything to him, it will just get worse. I’ll stay quiet.” A husband thinks, “How did I get a wife like this? But if I say anything it will turn into a huge fight. I’ll stay quiet.” Internally you feel all this and externally you act as if everything is fine. Our whole life passes acting like this – lying and praising. We do this because we are afraid that our self-interest won’t be served.

So desires are the root of all suffering. That being the case, just get rid of them. But this is impossible! Why? We form desires because we need happiness. We can’t eliminate the desire for happiness. This is our nature. We are a part of God, and God is an ocean of divine bliss. Because we are a part of Him, we naturally desire Him. Yet, we are searching for happiness in the world. God is to the East and we are going towards the West.

Once a person saw his neighbor churning milky water. He asked, “What are you doing?” That person said, “Don’t you know? This is milk. By churning it, I’ll get butter. Then I’ll make ghee from that.” He said, “Just give me a little bit and I’ll do the same.” He brought it to his house and also kept churning it. He churned it the whole night, but it never produced butter. He thought, “The neighbor who told me this would make butter has fooled me. I’ll go tell him.” He said to his neighbor, “Hey, this is fake milk! Where did you get it from? This is just water mixed with limestone. There is no butter in this! You will never get anything from it, even if you churn it for millions of years.”

Similarly, there is no happiness in this entire world. Even if you keep on trying 24-hours a day, how will you attain it? Even if you try for uncountable lifetimes, you will fail to find it. So the ones who have thought, “This is the wrong place – happiness is over there in God’s area!” became Saints like Tulsidas, Surdas, Meera and Kabir. All Saints and scriptures say that true happiness is in God’s area, but you never accepted it. Why? You saw everyone else was running towards the world – so you also thought, “Happiness must be over there!”

The fact is that the happiness the soul desires does not exist in the world. Then why does this world exist? God created the world to maintain the body. We are actually two – there is an internal “I” (the soul), which leaves the second “I” (the body) at the time of death. One “I” is live. It has given life to this second “I”. When the internal “I” leaves, then the second “I” becomes lifeless. We have never realised the existence of our inner “I”, the soul, but in reality it is the soul’s happiness that we desire. The happiness that the soul is seeking is God. Happiness of the body is related to material sense objects.

For example, the eyes see and the ears hear. If a person tried to see from his ears and hear from his eyes, he would be sent for a psychiatric evaluation. In same way, the happiness the atma or soul desires is paramatma or God. Trying to find divine happiness in the material world is like trying to see from your ears or hear from your eyes.

(Continued in Part 3)

© Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat and Bhakti Bliss, 2009