​What spiritual bliss can we have as sadhakas – how is it different from sattvika happiness?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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So what is spiritual bliss that we can experience at our sadhaka stage and how is it different from the sattvic life two three different things if we see in the sequence of verses from in Shunavatam Sukatakrishna there it says tadarajastamobhava kamalobhadeshe chete ete nanavidim sthitam sattve prasidati and then evam prasannamanaso bhagavad bhaktiyogata bhagavad tatmavigyane muktasangasijayate that is akshiyanti chasya karmaye idhate grudayanti siddhanti sarasamshaya akshiyanti chasya karmaye drishtey eva manishvare the sequence is as the modes of passion and ignorance subside we become situated in goodness and we become joyful as we joyfully practice bhakti then we get realization of god and by that realization of god all doubts get dispelled all illusions get removed and we see Krishna basically drishtey eva manishvare so now in this sequence if we see the sattvaguna itself is said to give joy so at our stage the whatever joy we experience during some direct devotional stimuli say for example in kirtan or when we are ourselves praying or ourselves doing any devotional activity directly intense devotional activity where the focus is on Krishna of course in all our devotional activities the focus is meant to be on Krishna but there are some times when the remembrance of Krishna becomes quite intense and we get absorbed in it so what we experience at that time when it is Krishna connected when it is Krishna centered that is certainly more than sattva that is like we are getting a glimpse of drishtey eva manishvare getting a glimpse of that not steadily but we do get it in between so overall the intellectual inside we might call it sattvic but because it is connected with the philosophy of bhakti yoga connected with Krishna only so it is not just intellectual even the intellectual inside because it is connected with Krishna it is also partially transcendentalized and to some extent say i can say that for my writing service i read other books and say if i see a devotional book which is not well written and i see a semi devotional book written by say a christian or something like that which is well written at intellectual level i get greater pleasure in that well written semi devotional book but if i consider the kind of insights the kind of joy you get when we get a new devotional insight or we get a simple intellectual insight not really connected with devotion there is a substantial difference i noticed that especially after initial years only after i started understanding Krishna conscious philosophy and then i worked in a company so we were doing some studies some training so as we were doing software understanding the things there is also some intellectual growth happening there but i felt that the intellectual growth was very insubstantial not at all like scraping the surface it was not any deep or fulfilling the way intellectual growth was when i was understanding the philosophy of Krishna consciousness and that i can perceive even now certainly it is not that just like a kirtan if it is well sung there is a certain joy in it if we have a very good musical aptitude even if it is a non devotional song we might appreciate it but we can also see that if there is a non devotional song well sung and a devotional song not so well sung we will appreciate that the singing is nice but if we consider two equal levels a devotional song well sung and a non devotional song well sung the kind of experience we will have it will be much deeper, richer, sweeter when it is a devotional song. I can say it I don’t have much of a ear for music right now but i can say it with respect to reading if a devotee has read a well written book, well written article well presented analysis and i read some Christian analyzing their philosophy or something like that, they are so well written so i can see that the level of intellectual level of satisfaction that comes that is much more when the intellectual is connected with devotion so my understanding is at ours when we are practicing bhakti it is difficult to separate the sattvic from the transcendent because we are living a sattvic life for the pursuit of transcendence and even our sattvic life is permeated with transcendental stimuli, with transcendental actions stimuli is what is around us actions is what we are doing that’s why what we are experiencing the peace or the relative freedom from agitation or even the illumination that we get when we see things clearly or understand things clearly that is not just sattvic that is partially sattvic and it is partially transcendental definitely not entirely transcendental at our stage, but there is transcendence in it also and over time bhakti parahisaanubhava viraktiranyatra it is said that when we experience krishna parahisaanubhava then viraktiranyatra, it can be attached to other things so over time we will see that if we are trying if we so i like intellectual things i like devotional things and currently i try to situate myself in the intersection between the intellectual and the devotional so now if i find something that is if my pleasure were only intellectual then anything intellectual i would like so if i were simply in the intellectual circle and there was no intersection of the devotional circle then anything intellectual i would be able to enjoy it but if somebody writes a very intellectual analysis of cricket intellectual analysis of some movie or some politics if our pleasure were only satvi then any well written material we will enjoy but if our pleasure is transcendental then we will feel ok this may be well written but i am not interested in it so its not that we become blind to things which are non devotional if they are done well we appreciate them that they are done well but we dont get a its not that we get any particular there is that detachment that viraktiranyatra that comes that is also one way we can perceive that we are experiencing krishna so what does navaguni say that vihaatam icchami naya nara once a person experiences the bliss of krishna consciousness then that person doesnt experience material existence once again in the same way that materialistic experience materialist have experienced it so even if we get involved in material activities even if we get involved in material activities somehow then we wont get that same vihaatam icchami naya narasagraho janaha one who has experienced will not really enjoy those things even if somebody tries to enjoy one will not enjoy that is also one indicator that we are experiencing krishna so broadly speaking if we consider the description of bliss which i describe in the bhakti literature what are the main characteristics some we could say physical transformations hair standing on end or tears coming from the eyes or trembling of the body those are of course very advanced symptoms but that is one another is that there is a great absorption as the ecstasy just seems to be going into some other world where he is just not aware of what is happening around him so that absorption that is there that we can also experience periodically not consistently intermittently we can experience especially if we find a service which we feel inspired about we feel committed to then in that we can start experiencing gradually that deep level of absorption nothing else seems to matter and we loose ourselves in krishna these are some of the ways in which we can understand that we are experiencing spiritual bliss now the ashtasattvic vikar or any of those other symptoms of ecstasy they may be illusive and because sahajiyas have have sort of misappropriated and misused them so in our tradition those are not looked upon very favorably if somebody exhibits them don’t exhibit them like that they are not looked upon so favorably because there is a tendency to imitate them prematurely and try to try to get the prestige available for a very advanced devotee so that is there but if you look at bhakti sama sindhu it also talks about other characteristics of advanced devotees such as avyatakalatvam asakti detachment and all those things namagane sadaruchi and utkantha so these are characteristics which can also experience may not be constantly but periodically we experience it that’s how we can understand that we are on the path towards experiencing spiritual bliss and in general in the process of bhakti our purpose is to serve Krishna we focus on that purpose then happiness comes bliss comes as a byproduct so rather than worrying so much about whether I am experiencing bliss or whether I will experience bliss if you focus more on the becoming connected with Krishna becoming absorbed in Krishna then that absorption will lead to a deep satisfaction sukhena brahma samsparsham atyantam sukham asnute bhagavad gita 7.6.27 so what we should focus on is trying to do the brahma samsparsham trying to connect with Krishna by absorption and then as a result of that sukhena brahma samsparsham that will result