SUKHA AND ITS ATTAINMENT

ACCORDING TO UPANISHADS
D. S. Subba Ramaiya

~ } 6-
G 3q I U

~ 4 } 6

or 'Happiness' has ever been at the centre of man's being and his
endeavour. It is at the focal point of his very existence. The goal that
everyone seeks to obtain by means of his actions and contemplations
directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously is Happiness. Every
moment of his life, he strives to achieve the cherished state of eternal and
unbounded Happiness, uncontaminated by the evil of misery. This is
instinctive to man.
Where does 'Happiness', which is sought after by everyone
instinctively, reside? What is its locus? An appreciation of the development
of man from his cradle onwards would seem to indicate that the much
sought-after Happiness is, if at all it exists, very elusive and not within the
grasp of anyone. A constant locus in which Happiness may be regarded as
stationed is neither noticeable nor is agreed upon universally. It is seen that
for the infant, the Happiness is located in the bosom of its dear mother. As it
advances in age, the centre of Happiness shifts on successively, for example,
to the toys, then to the books, then perhaps to the honours obtainable at
school, then towards a fortune, then towards matrimony, then towards one's
own children and so on. Thus, apparently Happiness goes on travelling as it
were from object to object; regarded as being now in this object and then in
another. Again, what makes one feel delighted on one occasion does not
necessarily do so again, which goes to show that Happiness is not only
elusive but also evanescent. The pleasure afforded in any situation is
necessarily limited in time and is usually not unconnected with the pain that
perhaps accompanies it. Even dreams are not unmixed pleasures. Happiness
and misery appear to be the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Says the
Gita P ] 0~~ ~ Further
what pleases one may pain another.
Upanishadic Philosophy, which is another name for the science of
Happiness, insists, however that there exists Happiness or Joy which never
changes. It is true that the pleasure which is generated by an object is not
constant. When a person gets disgusted with a particular object, he puts it by
and takes to another in the hope of finding Happiness there. From this
circumstance, says Vedanta, it does not follow that there is nothing like
abiding Happiness. All that can be said is that the locus of Happiness is not to
be found in any object, small or big, gross or subtle. The Happiness that
seems to travel from object to object is to be likened to the sunshine which
travels from place to place and from continent to continent. None of the
different places where it is seen is the home of sunshine. It is elsewhere, in
its source, namely the Sun. Likewise, in the present case, the source of Joy is
elsewhere, says the Shruti. The instruction is given by Sage Yagnavalkya to
Maithreyi, after pointing out that riches, for example, can serve as the means
to obtain only evanescent attainments and there is no hope of securing
interminable and uncontaminated Bliss with their aid. The Bliss itself,
however, does exist. In order to locate it she is asked to recognise that the
love that one bears to any object (husband, wife, son, wealth, cattle,
Brahminhood, Kshatriyahood, worlds, Gods, Vedas) is not because the object
is in itself loveable intrinsically it may be hateful or be fit for an indifferent
treatment in a different circumstancebut because it subserves the
interests of the enjoyer who loves himself. This part of the instruction is
brought to a close by the summary statement " U 9 ,
~~ 9 ". The supreme love is thus for the Self. It never
wanes in any situation and is not inconstant.
This tells us that the Self is the native home, the real metropolis of
Bliss. The deduction is given as
(a) ~ 9 P
(b) FF 7 ~

9 ~H

(c) ~ ~

= W 7
3 ~ ~~~ U H

This pure love for the Atman is that mode or Vritti ( ) of the
Antahkarana (~) which has for its object pure or Happiness and
must be distinguished from other vrittis which seem similar like , ~4, *
and =. These latter arise from and fade away into the former which
sustains them by being contained in their very constitution. Actually, all
other emotions like lust, greed, anger and even hatred for example can be
seen to arise in this love of oneself whose warped manifestations they are.
This love of the Self is unconditioned and precludes the possibility of its
being the means either for obtaining some other object, in which case in the
same act of the Self that is the * would also have to be the which is
an impossibility, or for securing non-existence of misery, ] as the
desire to get rid of misery is itself for the sake of the Self. Nor is the Self
supremely loveable on account of its being the locus of the non-existence of
misery because of the fact that the love for the Self is seen even at the time of
misery. The view that is to be considered merely as another name for
] cannot also be maintained as it fails to account (a) for the experience
of gradations in the intensity of Joy, (~ ) which can hardly be
associated with non-existence or (b) for not finding oneself in the state
expressed by (meaning ]

) at the close of a continuous

stream of cognition () during which interval ] is not experienced, (c)
for the experience of from an entirely new situation (which cannot be
considered as having any prior association with ] therefore and without
which an experience of ] is not possible), (d) for the experience of
without the prior knowledge of ] which should invariably have preceded it
if was the same as ] as the knowledge of the 9 of the concerned
is necessary for the to arise, (e) for the instinctive effort to
attain Eternal Happiness even in cases when one is not at all miserable.
Incidentally, similar considerations, mutatis mutandis, tell us that ] is not
either.
Whenever therefore is spoken of in the sense of ] as pointed
out for example in 9 7 U it should be regarded as
9. Thus ] no doubt to be got rid of, but there is no question of longing
to attain ], is ~ and is not to be considered as an object of
yearning. It is clear therefore that the unbounded love we bear to the Self
tells us that the Self is the seat of positive Bliss, rather Bliss itself, which is
variously termed as ~-, ~, , ~ etc.
This Joy or which is another name for the ~

the Self, is the

only Joy that exists. Every type of Joy that is experienced in life is derived
from the Joythe Self. Every moment we are enjoying the Absolute Bliss,
obscured and muddled up as it were with all parts of extraneous adjuncts,
like the desires that arise in the mind. Every desire is a veiled knock at the
door of Bliss and every satisfaction, a concealed and confused taste of .
Whenever a desire arises, the mind is thrown into a ruffled state. If the object
of the desire is not secured, misery sets in. Thus, incidentally, misery is seen
to arise because of an adventitious cause. When the desire is fulfilled as a
result of obtaining the object, the mind settles down to a peaceful state and
the Joy of the Atman becomes manifest. This is referred to as and is
commonly, though erroneously, regarded as arising from the , the Object.
In the obscured or ruffled modes, i.e., in the and the s of the mind
in its or states, there is no manifestation of the Atmic Bliss. In the
peaceful modes, the ~ 's in the state, the Bliss becomes manifest,
i.e., it is experienced. The object, or that is incidental to this
experience, whether it is one of common parlance or one that is imagined, is
regarded as belonging to oneself, as seen by the use of the words my and
mine, and thus has been "gilded by gold of one's Self'. It is provided as it
were, with the luster, the sunshine, of one's real Self. It has been absorbed
into the Self so to say. Thus, every transient pleasure is a "particle" as it were
of the only Joy that exists. Each of the enjoyments that arise here in this
world, or elsewhere in the other worlds of Pithris, Gods and so on up to the
7 referred to particularly in the and the 7 Upanishads,
which are secured by the performance of the appropriate s and
that are prescribed (the gradation in the enjoyments mentioned being traced
to the extensiveness and the of the concerned that manifest the
), is a mere ripple or a wavelet in this one singular ocean of Bliss.
However, none of these enjoyments is an unmixed blessing. There is
the dichotomy of the enjoyer and the enjoyed, the * and the in each of
these in spite of "the semblance of the union" felt during the enjoyment. The
enjoyer is but the shadow of the real Self which is behind, conditioned as it is
by egoity. Further the desire for enjoyment, demonstrating the existence of a
lacuna in the enjoyer, intervenes. Thus the unconditioned infinite joy is not
experienced as such. He who desires pleasure under such conditions must
necessarily be prepared to take also pain, the twin brother of pleasure.
The quest, though not always understood to be so, is in any case, for
eternal, unalloyed Happiness. Whatever has been said so far would suggest
that the intended goal might be reached if there is a cessation of desire and
activity, as also a disentanglement from the selfish attitude of the individual,
i.e., the ego-centred predicament. There would then be an unfoldment of the
Infinite Bliss. The enjoyments felt in games and adventures, in day dreams
and imaginary constructions, in the experiences associated with art such as
poetry, music, dance, painting and sculpture, in scientific development and
the pursuit of philosophy, strongly supports this view. In such cases, some or
all of the conditions mentioned above are to an extent fulfilled for a while
and enjoyment of a transcendental variety ensues. There is a foretaste of the
actual Bliss, as it were, in such cases.
The experience of deep sleep, 8 wherein one is not perturbed at all
by any type of desire or activity, nor is one cognizant of his 'delimited
selfhood', the mind having been resolved into its cause, which is recollected
on waking up in the form ~9

. Blissfully did I sleep and I

was not conscious of anything else, puts it beyond doubt that the seat of Bliss
is the Self. The Shruti points this out when it says 8
- and U U UF 4 ~. This
experience, unlike that of the waking and dream states informs us that the
mind is not necessary for the enjoyment of the Supreme Bliss. In fact in its
usual modes the mind is an obstacle. In 8 the 4 namely the *
and is transcended. The Bliss is Self Effulgent. It is untainted Bliss
. Misery does not exist and has no relation to this Bliss which is the
Self. The Shruti gives many an illustration, that of a bird, a babe, an emperor
and a Maha Brahmana, a man of realisation to drive home to us this
experience. The recollection of the deep sleep experience without the mind,
i.e., the self by the mind after it comes into obvious being at the
conclusion of the sleep i.e., by the self is possible because the latter is
none other, F than the former. The ~~ says ~ ~
~ 9 4.
During the moment immediately succeeding the termination of sleep
there is the residual impression or of the Bliss enjoyed during the deep
sleep as is seen by the fact that there is then no thought of external objects
and the individual remains calm and collected. Even in the waking state, in
between states of pleasure and pain, in the states of care-free indifference
and silence or rest, to secure which one instinctively demands that he should
be left alone. to himself, there is the experience of untainted Bliss. This is also
due to the residual impression or . This experience of as it is
called informs us of the existence of its cause, the Bliss of the Atman, just as
the coolness on the surface of a pot informs us of the existence of water in
the vessel.
Direct immediate experience, ~ of the Atman Bliss is obtainable
in the ~ by the practice of as outlined, for example, by the
Shruti in the passages " U~ 4 9

F E

9~ 97 " The 4
then though not patently manifest, is in a very subtle condition. The bliss
experienced is given expression to by the Gita as " ~~ 4RG-
E

" etc. It is appropriately referred to as . It defies verbal

description as is seen from ~ ~ =

and
the shloka " U U~ ~

T
~ ~ G " Such a serves to put the experience of the Bliss
that is the Atman on the indisputable basis. This is however attained only by
very few people and that usually intermittently lasting only for a short while
each time.
The instinctive attempt which when recognised and consciously
directed would be a planned struggle or adventure, is not merely to get
in to the state of Bliss now and then, but to obtain it once and for all and put
it on a permanent, firm and final footing. There should be no return to the
humdrum activity of life involving pain and apparent pleasure. To secure this
end, we listen to what the Upanishads say. Sage Yagnavalkya points out that
this world in its entirety is nothing other than the Atman,. ~ .
This is established by drawing attention to the fact that the world originates
from, is sustained by, and dissolves into the Atman, which however remains
changeless and unaffected. In other words the Atman is none other than the
Brahman. The 6 0 tells us G 7

0 ~
~ ~ 9~ The ~~ gives 4
4 ~~ 4

7 H 4 We
also have G F~ 97

G in the .
The 7T refers to it as ~ 3 and the as ~ , ,
G, 3

, and so on. The 7 puts it as

G G (G ). In the Gita we have GP =*~ ~ ~

G *~ + ~ ~~~7l G
G = as also G 9U U7U U U
U ~U Thus the Atman Bliss is Brahman Bliss. It is Ever-existing,
Self-effulgent, Impartite and without the second. The world of names and
forms really does not exist. It appears to exist because of the ignorance
(0)of the Substratum (U) which is G

and is sublated at the

dawn of knowledge, like the snake seen on a rope. The immediate experience
of G

the substratum the U~ is the result of the process of

enquiry, ordained in 3~, ~ 97, 7 etc. into the
import of the 3T, ~

. This is the direct means

that is to be adopted for dispelling ignorance, the practices pertaining to the
's and the 4's, etc., being the auxiliary means, U I9
*. Shruti declares ~ 597 ~7 ~7 77
The enquiry is to be undertaken at the feet of a Master, 6 who is ~4
and GU well aware of the ~ + and adept in employing the technique
of superimposition and negation, 7F. Investigation reveals that
turning towards objects in the hope of securing everlasting Bliss is like
shadow boxing, like the attempt of a child to catch hold of the head of its own
shadow by running after it. The enjoyer would be ousted out by the enjoyed
as the latter has been sought to be deprived of its real Selfhood by this
conceived bifurcation of the Impartite Self, 0F4~ . Just as
its dear mother, taking mercy on the child, makes it touch its own head, the
benevolent would show his * the way to get to the fountainhead of
Bliss which is his own Impartite Self. The instruction would centre around
the import of the T such as ~ G,
~ G, , 6 ~ , , G5G etc.
In order to be able to proceed and get at the fruit of the enquiry, (the
7 , the immediate impartite experience of Brahman given
expression to as GH) the disciple, * must prepare himself properly.
This is most important. He should develop in himself the 9
equipment , , P and ~. The Atman alone is his
concern and nothing else. All else, whether they are the outside inert objects
like riches, home, land etc. owned by him and regarded as his coveted
possessions (referred to by him as mine), or those which pass off as himself
in various circumstances like his son, his body and other sheaths as far as the
intellect, these have the ego or the shadow self ~ and & =~ and
must be given up or transcended. That this is not an impossible demand is
realised from the observed fact that a person really gives up his wealth, his
son, his body, his fondnesses or his ideas when he is put into the
predicament of choosing between anyone of them on the one hand and
himself on the other. This happens because his love of his Self is
unconditioned whereas it is for the sake of the Self that he loves anything
else. Shruti says ~ 4~ ~ FH~ H~ ~ Also the
shloka ~ 4 9 4~7 7 E

E 9 9 9~ 9
All desires for those other than the Atman are to be abandoned 9 ~
U ~ ~l ~4 G + With such qualities and with
proper devotion to his Guru, under whose benign care he takes to ~,
and 7 hearing reflecting and meditating, the enquiry would certainly
culminate in the Immediate Experience of the Impartite Brahman-Atman
Bliss which is the Final Awakening. The Guru, in his Infinite Grace, would
confer his own status on the * as a gift as it were ~ ~* ~
F .
This state of 3 is ipso facto the state of 0 on reaching which,
one finds that he is in possession of the substance of all desires and all
attainments all at once. It is the state of 8, +

~. Nothing
else remains to be known, ~ ~ ~

and nothing
else is left to be attained, GH

. It is the state of ~,

as also the state of ], . We consequently hear

~ 3H 6 =

U T

It is the
supreme abode of peace or repose par excellence, I ~ the state of
fearlessness, G 3

one in which the 6 has

been secured, the state of which is ~ 49. It is the state of
experience of the Supreme Joy no longer veiled, however that is sought after
in the pursuit of aesthetic pleasure, G = . It is the
state * the culmination of devotion, for the latter is the upsurge
of the love for the Atman, which is Brahman, the Highest, the Best and the
most Beautiful. It is the basis of ethics, the bedrock of morality, for the 3

is
, the "other", in fact, being one's own self. Virtue, like Bliss and
Wisdom is not being realised but revealed by him in that state. It is the acme
of satisfaction, the 8 that knows no bounds. The Gita tells us, for example
F~ U~ 8 ~F ~ 9 U 0 U l
U 7~ and refers to the man of realisation
as 9, 3~F, , , *, etc. He is a man among men, the
Hero, . He is to be felicitated and revered by all F F .
We are extremely fortunate in being blessed by the Capturing
Compassion, 7 ~ and the Divine Grace showered on
us by Sri Sri ]agadguru Mahasannidhanam of Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetham
appearing as the Great Master adorning the throne of transcendental wisdom
and maintaining in all its purity the Shruti Sampradaya for the spiritual
welfare of all mankind. In the thought that we have been saved by being
taken into His fold I am thrilled and filled with Joy and I offer my most
humble prostrations again and again at the Holy Feet of the divine Guru.
H H
7 7 ~~ 7

6-
H3 4 ~~ 7 -
~~ ~-3 9W

=R~9 8 ~
9~} H U E