Sai message for the day

[Guest guest]

Kindly let us know how we can achieve anandaprapti, gaining permanent

happiness, and removal of suffering dukhanivrtti.

 

These two levels of consciousness are not separate from each other,

as you have stated. When suffering is removed, you derive happiness.

Absence of happiness is the cause of misery. Both are interrelated.

Absence of light is darkness: Where there is light there is no

darkness. Absence of one of the two is the presence of the other. So,

if you explore the methods of removing suffering, happiness naturally

and automatically dawns.

 

If you investigate the reason for misery, you will know that

ignorance is the cause of all misery. What is responsible for

ignorance? It is the ego. What is ego? It is attachment. What is

attachment? It is the body, consciousness. So, misery occurs due to

attachment to the body. But, one can be happy physically as well as

spiritually if one's senses are under one's control. In fact, sadness

is not natural to man. Therefore, methods have to be found out to

remove sadness, which is artificial. Misery can be removed only by

prayer and by following the spiritual path. If idle horses are

overfed, they will be still lazier. Similarly, if you act according

to the whims and fancies of your senses, your senses will get

strengthened day by day and ultimately you will cease to be a human

being.

 

Man faces three types of miseries - adhyatmika, adhibhautika and

adhidaivika. Adhyatmika miseries are physical and mental. Physical

suffering makes you mentally sick. Your mental irregularities add to

your physical sickness. Therefore, physical and mental sufferings are

branded as adhyatmika. The second one is the suffering called

adhibhautika, which is caused due to a snakebite or a scorpion bite

or injuries inflicted by animals and other creatures. The third type

of misery called, adhidaivika befalls due to cyclones, floods,

earthquakes, fire accidents and various other natural calamities.

 

Primarily you should know that the mind is the cause of both pleasure

and pain. If your mind is positive, it doesn't matter if you are

either at your home or in a forest. You should fill your mind with

love. With constant thought of God, developing more and more of faith

in Him, and following the spiritual path, you can undoubtedly remove

your suffering. Of course, control of senses is absolutely necessary.

 

If you understand your true self, atma you will have ananda, bliss.

Bliss is the state, which is above pain and pleasure bliss is non-

dual. This is also called prajña. Since prajna is vast, the scripture

says, Prajnanam Brahma. Prajna is divine. Prajna is uniformly present

in the body, the mind and the intellect. Prajna is also known as

antarvani, the inner voice. By exercising control over external and

internal sense, you can listen to your antarvani. If you follow and

act according to your inner voice, you will be blissful.

 

Janma or birth is responsible for all misery. Where there is no janma

there is no chance for either pleasure or pain. However, janma is due

to karma, the consequence of past actions. For karma, the causes are

raga, attachment and dvesa, hatred. You take to an activity only if

or when you like it, or prefer it to some other activity, otherwise

not. Isn't it? So all actions are born of either of these two states

of mind, raga and dvesa. They in turn arise out of ahamkara, ego and

ajnana, ignorance. Ajnana is the main cause of misery. Ignorance goes

away only if ego is given up. For ego to be dropped one must rise

above attachment and hatred. For these two to vanish there should be

akarma, inaction, because these actions and their consequences lead

to punarjanma. As the Bhajagovindam of Adi Sankara states: Punarapi

jananam punarapi maranam punarapi janani jathare s'ayanam, " one takes

birth life after life, lying in the womb of the mother, again and

again after death. " Birth and death are responsible for all the

misery. In fact, one should follow the spiritual path in life not to

be born again. Instead of consuming sugar, you can become sugar

itself! This is the sugar of ananda, bliss. This is the sugar of

liberation. This is the sugar of sayujya, merger with God. Therefore,

mukti, liberation, is the only solution for the alleviation of

suffering.

 

The happiness that you get from listening to a person whom you like

or on acquiring an article that you wished to acquire is described as

priyam. When you actually get what you really want, that is called

modam, joy The experience of joy after acquiring what you want is

called pramodam, supreme joy. If anybody starts talking to you about

all that you like, you will be happy. So it is called priyam. If you

see or meet those who are dear to you, you will be extremely happy.

This is called modam. On receiving and possessing what is dearest to

you, your experience is described as pramodam.

 

When you hear of the divine power from great epics like the Ramayana

and the Mahabharata and of the lilas of God incarnate and devotion

celebrated in Bhagavata, and other texts, you will be very happy.

This is priyam. If you practice all that you have heard from these

immortal books, you will derive a kind of joy described as modam. If

you identify yourself with the divinity and merge in it, the supreme

bliss you get out of it is called pramodam.

 

So one has to hear about God, priyam in the first stage, practice all

that is heard, modam in the second stage and finally experience the

bliss thereafter, pramodam in the third stage. This is anandaprapti,

the way to be blissful.