Gita 06.21 – The intelligence opens the door to trans-sensory happiness

Thank you. sukhamatyantikam yathat vandheegrayamati indriyam vetti yatra na chaivayam sthitashchalati tattvatah Bhagavad Gita 6.21 Krishna is describing the stage of yogic perfection here. And he states that sukhamatyantikam yathat When he explains the sukha, that is atyantika.

It is the ultimate happiness. vandheegrayamati indriyam And vandheegrayam It is perceived with bundhi, with intelligence. atyantriyam It is beyond the senses.

vetti yatra na chaivayam vetti yatra Once having known this, chaivayam ayam chaivayam So, what happens by that? Once one knows this, one doesn't depart from the stage at all. sthitashchalati tattvatah From this situation, chalati means slip, move away. Krishna, Arjuna will later talk about how the mind is chanchala.

But once one has realized the soul to be realized one's spiritual identity and become situated at the stage of yogic perfection, then there is sthitashchalati tattvatah There is no more the chabati. There is no more the moment of consciousness. What is being stated over here? That sukham atyantikam yatpad sukham atyantikam The ultimate happiness.

Krishna is talking about in the koshita ki upanishad as well as in other places in the scripture, there is a hierarchy of happiness that is given. And then there is the earthly happiness. So, then there is then there is the heaven, swargye sukha.

Then there is the happiness in brahma loka. And beyond that, beyond it all is brahman. The upanishads generally don't talk about bhakti directly.

Although there are definitely references to bhakti at a few places and there are also references to absolute truth being a person at a few places. But overall the upanishads focus on jnana. And in the process of jnana which stresses on negation of the material there is not much positive realization.

There is not much realization of the positive features of the absolute truth. Therefore, the focus always stays on the the Upanishads don't focus so much on the happiness of devotion, bhakti ananda. This hierarchy is continued in Bhakta Rasamritha Sindhu where it is described that the bhakti ananda is far greater than the brahmananda also.

But the upanishads say that this brahmananda is very high. The realization of brahman that happens the realization of the soul as being spiritual even that realization brings great happiness. sukhamadhyantikam yathad buddhi grahayam athi indriyam athi indriyam Normally, in this world most pleasure centers on sense gratification.

And even if there are other forms of pleasure often they all boil down to sense gratification. There may be other forms of pleasure, no doubt but often they are ultimately means to pursue sense gratification. So very few are the people who actually go beyond the pool of sense gratification completely by the material consciousness.

So athi indriyam the speciality of this happiness is that this happiness is athi indriyam beyond the senses. So normally people think of happiness in terms of the senses. But here Krishna is talking about happiness beyond the senses.

buddhi grahayam athi indriyam buddhi grahayam. Now what does this mean that it is perceived with intelligence? So buddhi grahayam means that actually the realization of the atma is something which happens through the subtle bodies with the central feature of the intelligence being involved over there. buddhi grahayam athi indriyam Now we cannot perceive pleasure especially when we talk about refined pleasures.

But they cannot be perceived without buddhi. It's like if say there is a somebody succeeds in solving a complex mathematical problem. A mathematician succeeds in solving that problem.

Then the pleasure the mathematician feels the common people will not be able to understand also what is the pleasure? What is the problem? What is the solution? What is there to get so excited about? So when Archimedes is said to have shouted Eureka in his bathing tub and just jumped out of the tub and ran to the king's palace to describe how he had found a solution centered on the principles of gravity by which he could detect the purity of gold. And people were struck how is this person? What has gone wrong with this person? Why is he running through the streets without any clothes like this and going to the king's palace on top of it king's court. So people just couldn't grasp it.

But he was experiencing happiness at a, he was experiencing a thrill of discovery at the intellectual level buddhi grahayam. Now these are simply actually there is nothing spiritual about any of these pleasures but of course the inspiration may come from Krishna from the super soul in the heart and in that sense there is a spiritual component to it. But the point is that there is no direct perception or connection with the absolute truth in these.

So still when one experiences so the point is buddhi grahayam there are pleasures which are experienced which are not understood at all at the level of the senses but they are experienced with the intelligence. So similarly the highest spiritual happiness or the happiness at the brahman level is experienced through the intelligence. buddhi grahayam ati indriyam So the point which is making, which is being emphasized here is that it is ati indriyam that it is not sensory pleasure.

It is trans-sensory pleasure. So now of course bhakti is trans-sensory but it is we could call it rather than calling it trans-sensory it is sensory transcendence the trans-sensory would mean beyond the senses but sensory transcendence means it involves senses in the transcendental realm and it also involves pursuit of the transcendental realm through the senses. The soul when attaining perfection through bhakti gets a swaroopa where the soul has senses to pursue the absolute truth and to have loving relationship with Krishna and the devotees in the spiritual world.

So the perfection in bhakti is sensory spirituality and the process in bhakti is also sensory spirituality not that sensory spirituality means that we engage with the senses but we do use the senses in devotional service we use the tongue to glorify Krishna to taste prasad, the eyes to behold the deities and in this way it is definitely sensory spirituality so Krishna is not talking about bhakti right now he is talking about the process of yoga where the senses are seen primarily as pathways to illusion entanglement and misery so one doesn't seek pleasure through the senses but one goes beyond the senses and experiences pleasure through intellectual perception of life's spiritual dimension of one's own spiritual nature and then vette yatra once I am on this stage trinachai vayam from this stage one never departs from this stage it's like when a pauper becomes a millionaire the pauper will never give up the wealth so we could say that the pauper might sometimes commit a mistake the pauper who has become a millionaire may somehow become intoxicated or whatever and squander away the wealth, that may be possible but the millionaire but the soul who has become a spiritual millionaire by realizing one's spiritual identity never gives up one's wealth never gives up the inner wealth never relieves the spiritual situation na chalati siddhas chalati tatvataha so this is the Krishna continuing the description of yogic perception where he states how the soul becomes rooted in spiritual reality.