Happiness is Counterfeit Bliss

“Happiness is bliss outwardly directed toward the senses and their world of relativity and change.” Thus does Chapter 5 of the soon-to-be-released book, God is for Everyone, contrast human happiness with soul-bliss. In the sensorium of this world we react to experiences, labeling one “desirable,” another “to be avoided.” Happiness becomes identified with the effort to keep things a particular way, resisting instinctively the unceasing change of this world of duality. We end up thinking we know how things ought or ought not to be.

Such efforts turn many people into what Yogananda calls “psychological antiques,” wanting nothing changed (even improved!) in the vain effort to find stability and permanence. The soul too easily confuses the eternal nature of bliss with the impermanent state of the body and the senses.

Imagine that idyllic cottage by the sea. Now imagine that idyll lasting, lasting, and lasting into eternity. Ennui would, in time, settle in like a grey mist, igniting nothing more hopeful than a death wish! Avoiding suffering is fair and understandable enough in this world of constant threat, but expecting happiness from it is, at best, wishful thinking!

Why then does humanity cling so fervently to the illusion of earthly happiness? Ignorance, partly, yes! But there’s another reason: bliss takes energy to experience. It is powerful and transcendent. Compared to that cottage by the sea it is nothing short of threatening to ego consciousness. The ego is just as likely to prefer its dreams (however pathetically unrealistic) to the energy and commitment required to aspire to the heights of everlasting bliss. To one driven by earthly attachments and dreams, bliss can only be but a threat and a mockery of those very same hopes. The long-caged bird facing the open door is just as likely to cower in fear as to fly courageously into the blue skies of freedom!

Most folks faced with the opportunity to put out energy for personal change and transformation, are likely to react defensively saying, “But I like myself just the way I am. I’m as good as anyone else, why should I change?” The fact that most are dissatisfied, some deeply unhappy, others suffering, and most driven by a herd instinct, with no idea where the herd will go next, is a fact conveniently forgotten.

Bliss may be philosophically appealing but offered it here, now, today, we, too, like St. Augustine might reply, “Lord, make me good, but not yet!” Or like Dr. Lewis, Yogananda’s first friend and disciple in America, who having long pestered his guru for a taste of cosmic consciousness, was finally challenged by Yogananda: “If I gave it to you, could you take it?” “No, sir” was doctor’s sheepish but honest reply. In most religions the picture of salvation offered is usually something the majority can handle: the Moslem abode of pleasure, heavenly music for the Christian, or for Hindus, dancing with Lord Krishna.

That the climb towards the Divine heights entails a loss of any kind is the kind of “false notion” concocted by satanic ignorance. For, to paraphrase Jesus, “All these things will be added unto you” in God. A further point is that no great saint can expect to puncture such a fundamental false notion without suffering the consequences, for the ego and subconscious are clever and will duel unto the “death” for seeming survival. Indifference at best and persecution for sure is the lot promised by Jesus to all who would spread the “good news!”

In the epic tale of the Mahabharata only the warrior-disciple Arjuna commanded such power of concentration upon the target that his arrow wins for him the prize of the Princess Drupadi: representing the soul-force of Kundalini, queen of Bliss. Buddha, like Arjuna before him, vowed to achieve enlightenment at all costs. Yet the victory of Bliss is no matter of will power alone, but the power of Divine grace that both inspires and rewards that heroic effort. Directing our will in devotion and self-offering to Conscious Bliss is the secret to soul-success.

The new book, God is for Everyone, is expected to be available this Fall. In November we have scheduled a three-part Wednesday night class series, taught by a team of our ministers, plus a fourth talk (Friday, November 21) by visiting ministers Jyotish and Devi Novak! We expect, further, to be able to offer the new book at the Ananda mandir store on a special sharing basis: “Each One, Reach One.:” buy one and get a second copy free to give to a friend!