By: Dinesh Chikkaballapur
Do we want temporary happiness or permanent bliss? Why are we not happy in the first place? What is wanting? Why is others’ approval so essential for us?
Let’s turn to the Sai Satchrita or the Bhagwad Gita for some answers. For one, the words ‘pleasure’ and ‘bliss’ are often used interchangeably, there is a mix-up, seldom considered odd in literature. Poets too often take the liberty of using one for the other.
To end this confusion, Krishna in the Gita has drawn a clear line and cautioned everyone against this folly. Sai Baba has pointed out that our senses drive us to pleasures, which can turn out to be a source of unceasing pain. This is so because pleasures are often short-lived and once exhausted, they leave behind a sense of loss and injury. Pleasures are said to be ‘dukkha-yoni’ and ‘adyant-vantah’, having a beginning and an end.
The one who seeks ‘atyantika sukha’, bliss, needs to know that it cannot be achieved or even perceived by our senses. It can be reached only by one’s buddhi, reason. And having attained bliss, one is never shaken even by sorrows of the greatest magnitude, says the Bhagwad Gita,( verse 6:22) and many anecdotes by Sai Maharaj in Sai Satcharita.
It is necessary to take oneself away from the unreal pleasures of life, states the Gita, verse 5:20. The tool to achieve bliss is undoubtedly jnana, knowledge, or wisdom that obviates all moha, illusion, which itself is a product of tamo guna. Lord Sainath has pointed out that debilitating emotions come in the way of the pursuit of wisdom, and most of them emanate from rajo guna. Those who are ignorant and faithless invite self-destruction. That is why Baba wants two Paise Dakshina of Shraddha and Saburi – faith and patience.
Therefore, only intellect can lead us to faith and no amount of exercising of the senses or any liturgy can furnish the apparatus to establish faith. Without such faith, there can be no permanent happiness.
Ironically, all karma is to be renounced for freedom from its inevitable fruits. At the level of everyday existence, it is impossible to give up karma, Gita 18:11. Somebody who does not believe in the Self, never attains the state of bliss and is condemned both in this world as well as in the one beyond, Gita 4:40. This leads us to another assertion that one should invariably be centered around the one and the only reality of the Self, and enjoy it to the utmost, be content with that and not aspire for anything else, Gita 3:17. A devotee of Sai Maharaj needs to constantly engage himself in yoga, remaining in a secret place by himself, with thoughts subdued, free from hope and greed, Gita 6:10.
Bliss can be achieved only in the nihilistic space between thoughts, which are a result of one’s history, the past. So say modern thinkers like Eckhart Tolle, Sri Narasimha Swamiji, and Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji who made ‘Divya Nama Smaran’ like Vishnu Sahasra Nama chanting as a stepping stone to bliss. The logic again is anasakti, non-attachment. Attachment can give rise to a sense of non-fulfillment and make you feel frustrated.
The lingering problem is: can we jettison our past for good and forestall the future? We could make a sincere effort to this end. It is ultimately the realization that matters. Realization is essential because looking back invites regrets, and looking beyond the present, the future that is, gives rise to uncertainty and fear
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