What feelings do impersonalists experience – material or spiritual?

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Transcript

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When we talk about different kinds of feelings, spiritual feelings, and material good and material bad feelings, where do impersonalists fit in? Actually, the whole process of impersonalism, although they talk about ananda, they talk about the bliss of brahmananda, merging into brahman, but actually if you look from the deeper concept of their liberation, there is not much room for them. Because their concept of pure consciousness, when we talk about pure consciousness means, the consciousness that has no contaminations, nothing apart from the desire to serve Krishna.
But their idea of pure consciousness is contentless consciousness. That means, normally whenever there is consciousness, there is the subject of consciousness, the stream of consciousness and there is the object of consciousness. So, you are looking at me.
So, you are the subject and your eyes, from that a stream of awareness is coming. There is a stream of consciousness and I am the subject. Normally these three are there whenever there is consciousness.
So, in the impersonalistic conception of perfection, there is no subject and there is no object. Because ultimately there is only oneness. So, there is no perceiver and there is no perceiver.
So, there is in that sense contentless consciousness. So, contentless consciousness means only consciousness, with no perceiver, no perceived. So, actually speaking, what is the ananda in that consciousness and who is experiencing that ananda? All that is left quite hazy in that logical conception.
But the idea is at the very least for the soul, who is freed from the craving for material things. That itself is a relief. In the material world there are two kinds of anxieties.
One is the fear that material miseries may come upon us and second is the anxiety that our desires may not be fulfilled. So, it is coming to the Brahman platform, frees us from both. na shochati na kaamakshati, as Krishna said in 154.
That itself is a relief and of course the atma is such ananda. The ananda which the atma has in it is not infinite. Because the atma itself is not infinite, atma is finite.
So, therefore, the brahmananda which is experienced without any connection with the absolute truth is actually finite. But still the relief from the material misery is there. And so in that sense they have some ananda.
But technically speaking, they are at the zero level. So, if you consider the y-axis, the positive axis is devotional emotions, the negative axis is material emotions. But in the material emotions also, which are close to zero point, they are positive material emotions, adharmic material emotions.
And those who are way down on the negative axis, they are adharmic negative emotions. But the impersonalists more or less are at the zero point. So, maybe a little bit they go upwards from the zero because they realize the atma’s spiritual nature.
But not substantially up. So, although they talk about ananda, actually in the conception of liberation there is practically nothing to experience. And in that sense there is no positive emotion or positive happiness or positive feelings because there is no one to experience positive feelings.
And there is no one in relationship with which to experience those positive feelings. So, that’s why that is in one sense an emotionally unfulfilled or even emotionally impoverished state. Although it is free from the miserable emotions associated with the material world.