Notes on BSB

T Swaminarayan tvswaminarayan at YAHOO.COM
Wed Sep 6 16:22:51 CDT 2000


--- "Ravisankar S. Mayavaram"
<miinalochanii at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>
> In 3a - section 3.4 you seem to imply that brahman
> has a samanya and
> vishesha amsha. Am I reading this correct?  brahman
> is nirguNa, it
> cannot have any visheshha amsha at all. When we say
> aananda, we should
> take it to mean that it transcends sukha and duHkha.
>  Not that aananda
> is an attribute of brahman.
> am".
------------------------------------------------------->

The following extract from "The philosophy of
Panchadasi" by Swami Krishnananda of Sivananda ashram,
Rishikesh gives us an insight into the term "ananda"
in the group of terms"Sat,Chit and Ananda"and truly
merits vichara while we are on this topic of
"ananda"which is surely different from "sukha"as we
know it in Vyavahara.

QUOTE::

In profound
                   spiritual states of meditation,
Space is not felt to be existent. There is no idea
even of
                   Time or of objects. There is only a
feeling of perennial bliss, because, in the spaceless
                   condition, Sat-Chit-Ananda
manifests itself. When spatiality is forgotten
altogether, what
                   is it that remains? Not merely a
negation or a void. If you contend that it is just
void, or
                   nothing, there is no harm, because
you are conscious of what you call void or
                   nothingness. As it is revealed in
the conscious state, it cannot be equated with
                   non-existence. It is the highest
real conceivable, and it is also the highest bliss,
because
                   of the absence of likes and
dislikes, the desirable and undesirable, friend and
foe, etc. As
                   it is an impartial condition
unconnected with the objects of the world, that alone
is real
                   Bliss, wherein one is above the
notions of the desirable and the undesirable. One is
                   exhilarated when one comes in
contact with the desirable; one is sunk in sorrow when
                   confronted with the undesirable;
but true Bliss is experienced only in the absence of
                   both. There is no such thing as
'real' pain because pain is not an essential condition
of
                   the Self, it is a passing state.
Both exhilaration and grief are psychological
conditions,
                   and they come and go. They are not
permanent states of experience. The mind is
                   transient and, hence, its
conditions, viz., pleasure and pain, also, are
transient. The
                   permanent being is the Bliss of
Brahman alone.


. All things in the world are existent (Sat), are
revealed (Chit), and
                   are objects of endearment (Ananda)
to someone or other, at different times. These
                   characteristics of Existence,
Consciousness and Bliss are the essence of Brahman,
while
                   the special qualities, such as
confinement to a locality in space, appearance only at
a
                   particular time, etc. belong to the
individuality of things. By a careful analysis of the
                   visible world, it is possible to
isolate Sat-Chit-Ananda from nama-rupa
(name-and-form),
                   the General Existence from
particular appearances.

UNQUOTE::

Warm regards,

Hari Om!

Swasminarayan


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