When happiness is a subjective experience can there be any absolute happiness?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you as happiness is subjective then can we have an objective definition of happiness can there be an absolute happiness how can we say that the happiness of Krishna Bhakti is absolute answer with respect to happiness subjectivity and objectivity both go together that means certainly happiness is something which is to be experienced by a subject so in that sense subjectivity is undeniable but subjectivity and objectivity are not entirely fragmented so the subjective experience can arise from an objective reality or it can arise from just a conception that is not based on reality so to elaborate this let’s say if a person is person loves cricket and a person doesn’t love cricket so if that favourite team wins the first person gets elated but the second person is not affected and there is an objective reality that a particular team won the subjective experience is different based on how much people are emotionally invested so in 13.821 Krishna says that the changes in the outer world are caused by material nature he refers to cause and effect but the experience that happens because of the desire to enjoy the soul’s consciousness gets invested in the external events and that’s why the soul experiences happiness or distress so if somebody is not emotionally invested in cricket the objective event of their national team winning has happened but there is no subjective experience of joy in their consciousness because there is no emotional investment so now somebody may have a daydream in this case in the daydream they may imagine that I have a beautiful partner, I have a lot of wealth and I am famous and they may think that way I am happy the subjective experience but in this case there is no objective reality on which the subjective experience is there so although the subjective experience is there because it’s based on just a conception or imagination which will sooner or later get disrupted and then that happiness will also end they will have to come out of the daydream sooner or later so if we consider something in between say people drink alcohol and they feel good after that so there is a objective action of drinking alcohol there is a objective effect of the drinking of alcohol on their brain chemicals and their body condition that may make them feel high but this high feeling although it is based on objective reality of drinking it is not based on the objective reality of a more harmonious life so that will be very fleeting so we could say that our conceptions of what external events or what will stimulate happiness within us that will be shaped by the three modes so in the mode of ignorance we will just retreat from the outer world into an imaginary world and get some pleasure or we will try to destroy things in the outer world and through that destruction we get some pleasure so the link between the objective situation and the subjective experience is shaped by the modes in the mode of passion I may want to prove myself better than everyone else I may want to possess, control, dominate and thereby I get some pleasure and if that objective change is not happening then I don’t get pleasure or the opposite happens instead of I coming best somebody else becomes best and I go lower down then I get distress in the mode of goodness the happiness comes also by some external situations but it is just rather than we being the controller it’s more of we seeing the harmony in the outer situations so if we go to a natural place and see some beautiful mountains, rivers, lakes clouds this is so peaceful and we feel peaceful by that so again there is an objective reality which is creating subjective experience but the objective reality here is much more enduring if I get my pleasure by controlling things if I get my pleasure when my favorite team wins that’s also objective situation but that situation is not so much in my control and that situation is not lasting so because of that the happiness from that will also not be lasting in my term when I perceive the innate order in nature and I appreciate that so Newton had some pleasure in discovering gravity now there will be others who got some pleasure in tapping gravity to make some steam engine or airplane or whatever else that’s also pleasure that can also be stimulating very deep but you could say that the pleasure in goodness is not so much through doing and making things happen but rather by observing how there is orderliness so in general in the pleasure of goodness the gyanendriyas are more active in the pleasure of passion the karmendriyas are more active in the pleasure of ignorance it is either the karmendriyas act in a destructive way or there is passivity either karmendriya or gyanendriya there is simply the mana in this imagination प्रकाशो प्रवितिष्च प्रमादो मोहे वच्च so there is neither illumination nor proper action it is simply illusion now so in this way there is definitely subjectivity in the experience of happiness but there is objectivity about the situation or the situation or the stimulus for that happiness and that stimulus is more enduring then the happiness also will be more enduring so a drunk person may feel happier than a sober person but the stimulus is not sustainable and not only is it not sustainable it is also destructive so therefore if the happiness comes from a stimulus that is enduring enduringly attractive or enduringly a source of happiness and there is also a state of mind by which we can experience the beauty or the sweetness or the attractiveness of the stimulus then for both these two when they come together then there is the experience of happiness in general for any kind of perception to take place say right now we are looking out of the window towards the traffic so there is the outer scene there is the inner screen and there is the inner seer so the inner screen is the mind the outer scene is the situation so what happens with the outer scene is reflected on the inner screen and then that is seen by the inner seer which is the soul so normally for any experience to take place the three have to be in line the inner seer the inner screen and the outer scene so in the process of bhakti why do we say that the pleasure of bhakti is absolute that is because the stimulus who appears in the outer scene he is enduringly attractive whatever is attractive in this world its attractiveness is simply a spark of Krishna’s attractiveness so objectively Krishna is supremely attractive enduringly attractive and then he from the outer scene we perceive him as a deity we perceive him as through the philosophy through the kirtans whatever from the outer scene he has to appear on the inner screen and for that the mind needs to be purified Krishna says in 7.1 that by the practice of yoga the mind becomes attached to him mayy asakta manah partha yogam yunjan madhashraya samsayam samagramma mitha gnyasa siddha shrun that by by practicing yoga you can make your mind attached to me so the process of bhakti yoga is meant to ensure that Krishna becomes imprinted on our inner screen and to the extent that happens that happiness will become enduring so right now the happiness of Krishna bhakti is subjective in the sense that for those people on whose inner screen Krishna is not manifest is not imprinted they may not feel that happiness but that doesn’t mean that Krishna doesn’t have the all attractiveness or that Krishna doesn’t have enduring attractiveness it just means that the perception that is required for that experience of satisfaction that is not happening the connection between the inner here the inner screen and the outer scene and eventually bhakti is so transcendental that Krishna can manifest on our inner screen even when he is not there in the outer scene right now in the condition stage even when he is on the outer scene he doesn’t manifest on the inner screen we went for the deities but we are thinking of other things but eventually it is said that deity worship is especially needed for sadhakas because they can see Krishna externally and then that gradually they become impressed internally but then for advanced devotees it is not that they reject deity worship but that Krishna is manifest in their hearts itself they are seeing him in the inner screen and when that happens then we can become happy wherever we are so we can say that there is an objective standard of happiness in the sense that if there is a source of happiness that is objectively known to be enduringly a source of happiness and if there can be a state of consciousness that can enable us to in an enduring way connect with that source of happiness then we can have enduring happiness with respect to objects of this world we say that they cannot be absolute sources of happiness because they themselves are not enduringly attractive and they can’t be enduringly impressed in our mind either we may become attached to them and we may think of them a lot but they are themselves not enduringly attractive so that’s why Krishna is objectively speaking supremely attractive but subjectively because our consciousness is not right now connecting with Krishna that’s why we don’t experience him as attractive and we don’t experience connection with him as joyful but if we do that as austerity to purify ourselves then we will experience him to be enduringly joyful from me comes remembrance, knowledge