Thus Spake the Divine - Absolute Blissfulness

Thus Spake the Divine

Absolute Blissfulness

“The supreme blissfulness occurs only when Athma consciously becomes aware of its own self”, Varuna tells his son Bhriugu. In this Chapter, Poojyasri Maha Periyava highlights the experience of absolute blissfulness through the conversation between Varuna and his son Bhriugu.

In the Kritha Yuga, there was a saint called Bhrigu, who went to his father Varuna and asked “How do I identify a substance, which is full, absolute and complete? A substance that is absolute in terms of time and in terms of its form. It should not have any deficiency within it. I want to know about such an absolute substance.”

Varuna answered, “Go and engage yourself in penance. Then, you will know it for yourself”. Bhrigu obliged and started his penance. At the beginning, he could infer something as a result of his penance. He went to his father and told him, “This body is the supreme substance. This is the one substance, which has the competence to understand and comprehend everything. The substance that is capable of understanding and comprehending things is more supreme than the substance that is being understood. Therefore, this body is the most supreme, absolute substance”.

The father remained silent and again instructed him to continue the penance.

Accordingly, Bhrigu continued his penance for five times. Each time, he reported to his father whatever he felt as the outcome of his penance. Initially, to Bhrigu, the body appeared the most absolute substance. After that, he realised that this body would perish one day as “dead body”. Hence, it appeared to him that the body is not an absolute substance. Then, he felt it is the breath that

is the absolute substance. But he knew that one day, it would stop. After that, he felt it is his mind, which is the absolute substance. Later, it appeared to him that knowledge is the absolute substance. The fifth time the state of happiness seemed to him the absolute substance.

Bhrigu went to his father and asked him, “I have been doing penance all these days. Nowadays, I feel a kind of happiness streaming within me now and then. What’s it?” The father answered his question. “You say that you feel a little amount of happiness erupting in you and that is the blissfulness, which is ‘that’ substance that you are searching for.

Now, you are experiencing a very small portion of it. Supposing, if this is fully filled within, then we call it the Supreme Blissfulness. That Supreme Blissfulness is the only substance that completely stays full in terms of body and in terms of time, without having any scope for any deficiency. There is the Atma, which is the source of all these substances, namely, body, breath, mind and knowledge, and those beyond all these substances. The supreme blissfulness occurs only when Atma consciously becomes aware of its own self.”

Just only a tiny drop of that supreme blissful ocean flows within us and that too very occasionally. If we are sitting under a dense tree filled with branches and leaves, there will be complete shadow without any ray of sun penetrating. When the wind blows, the tree’s branches and leaves sway and sun’s rays peep through the gap created by the moving leaves. When the wind stops blowing, the branches and leaves close again and the gap disappears, as do the sun’s rays. Similarly, the blissful state keeps flowing into us now and then and vanishes. Blissfulness is a substance that is universally present with absolute fullness. But, due to our bad karma and our impure mind, it is obscured from our sight. Like how the sun’s rays flow to the ground through the gap created by the wind and by the swaying leaves, similarly our good deeds remove the obscurity. And, when our bad karma is eradicated, we get the sprinkles of that blissfulness spread all across. If this proliferates, then it becomes the Supreme Blissfulness. If we persistently do penance and self-inquiry, we can submerge within the ever blissful ocean and become blissfulness itself.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in & across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture & Tradition.