Aananda (Bliss)

आनन्द
(Bliss)

Nanda , a verb, means to please. In a bhajan mother sang, KruShNa is called Nandanandana - His father Nandaa's source of pleasure (Nandana)

Aananda means much pleasure.

RamaNa was operated for a cancerous growth on his left shoulder. No chloroform. He was blissfully unaware of any pain.

A Sufi saint was pierced in the chest by an arrow. Remove it when I offer Namaaz , he said. He did not feel any pain then as he was bliss personified at that time.

In Bhaja Govindam , the Aachaarya sings - A Jnaani is not an Aanandi, who has happiness but but is Aananda, the very form of happiness. He alone truly rejoices whose mind delights in Brahman, be it in company or in solitude, be it in divine communion or immersed in pleasures.

The following is inspired by reading an article in The Mountain Path magazine of Sri RamaNaashrama. (Is the english word path an adaptation of the Samskruta word patha?)

Aananda is absolute happiness , eternal, perpetual and unchanging; unconditional bliss; freeedom from any lack or limitation; fullness.

Even a child wants freedom, feeling tired of restrictions and limitations. It has full faith in its mother and returns to mother 's arms after tasting a little freedom. Mother is like Aatman. Ignorant, w erush out and return to mother during sleep to experience supreme happiness without the outher world and without even the prison house of the mortal body.

The Infinite alone is Bliss: perpetual , uninterriupted Happiness; there is no happiness in captivity, in the finite. Therefore, Aananda means infinitude, limitlessness, wholeness as the very nature of Aatmaa. Free from shackling limitations, absolute happiness is a natural corollary of self-knowledge.

A Jnaani, a self-realised soul, crosses all sorrows once for all and is absorbed in positive bliss, not a mere absence of misery but a fullness with not the slightest want and hence utter cessation of desires and fears. He is Aaptakaama.

RamaNa's Who am I? begins with - "As all beings desire to be happy always, and being endowed with supreme love for oneself, and happiness being the only reason for such love, one should seek and know the self."

Yajnavaalkya's discourse to his wife, Kaatyaayani, on this subject (found in the BRuhadaaraNyakopaniShad) is very illuminating.

ViShayaananda is sense pleasure. Classified as Priya, Moda and Pramoda. These are corrupted forms of aananda, aanandavikaara. Just lost in thoughts. Priya is a flash of joy, say when a ripe mango is seen. Moda is when you buy it and take home. Pramoda is when you eat it and recollection thereof. Just droplets of bliss of Brahman which mistakenly taken as coming from external objects.

Vidyaananda comes out of book knowledge. An appropriate line in knowledge resolves the wanting of some information by the ego brings in joy which again is partial manifestation of inherent bliss but mistakenly taken as coming from the information gathered.

Yogaananda comes from personal experience - not intellectual appreciation - of knowledge gathered. Still in the the shade of manifestation.

Swaroopaananda, Aatmaananda - means merger with Brahman, Aatman. Bliss. "You forget all that you have learnt, but still remain in bliss," says RamaNa. Unconditional bliss - shining full in its pristine and unfettered glory.

Jesus said: Be still and know I am God. Watch the verb - know. If He had said -think, it would have been yogaananda , experiencing happiness through intellect. Know means direct experience, transcendental.

Visiting temples, worship at home give viShayaananda a necessary stepm to start the journey.

NOTE : 1. GOD is ever present in our hearts. HE is the only source of BLISS. Happiness is a taste of this BLISS. When we feel happy, our mind is inturned. When we are unhappy, our mind is outurned in the mundane world.