[Advaita-l] [advaitin] ​Happiness as the nature of the self, svarUpa of mokSha.

[Sundar Rajan]

Namaste,
>>
Those who have difficulty recognizing *ānanda* as one’s own *svarūpa*
through the *suṣupti* analysis often turn to *samādhy-anubhava*, where *sat*,
*chit*, and *ānanda* are said to manifest together. Even here, however, it
is acknowledged that such experience by itself cannot establish
*advitīyatva* of the Ātman; that can be known only through *śruti*.
>>

What seems to be missing in all of these approaches is a clear *litmus test*:
*identity with all (sarvātma-bhāva)*. Śaṅkara is unambiguous on this point.
In the *Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad bhāṣya*, he explicitly states that even a
hair’s-breadth sense of difference—thinking “this is not myself”—is *avidyā*.

There is no allowance for partial non-difference.

I do not know much about the various “ways” that are spoken of, but Lord
Kṛṣṇa lays out a very clear path in *Bhagavad Gītā, Chapter 6*. He speaks
of:


*sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad buddhigrāhyaṁ atīndriyam* (6.21)

The words *sukham* and *ātyantikam* are significant, and even more so is
what follows:


*yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ* (6.22)

The expression *yaṁ labdhvā*—“having obtained which”—cannot be brushed
aside. Kṛṣṇa is clearly pointing to a definite recognition, something
unmistakably known as “obtained,” even though it is not an object and not
sense-based.

Importantly, he does not allow this to remain an intermediary attainment.
He shortly thereafter gives the test:



*sarva-bhūta-stham ātmānaṁ sarva-bhūtāni cātmani … sarvatra sama-darśanaḥ*
(6.29)

This is decisive. *Sukham ātyantikam* is not presented as an end by itself.
Its validity is established only when it culminates in *identity with all*.
Anything short of that—however refined, whether through analysis of
*suṣupti* or attainment of *samādhi*—has not yet met the standard set by
Śaṅkara or by Kṛṣṇa himself.

Regards

On Tue, Jan 6, 2026 at 10:39 AM Raja Krishnamurti via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> In Videha Mukti, the mind still experiences and tells the individual that
> he has attained Moksha. That is why it is called videha. When a person
> attains Moksha, it is beyond mind. That is why there is no experience of
> Anandha. That state itself is Anandha. There is no mind and no thoughts. It
> is the difference between dvaitha and advaitha.
>
>
> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
>
>
> On Tuesday, January 6, 2026, 10:16 AM, V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> Namaste
>
> Good post on Ananda. I have a question:
>
> Moksha is given the meaning: niratishaya Ananda avapti. In jivamnukti this
> experience of supreme bliss can be admitted. However, in videha mukti, in
> the absence of the mind medium to experience the svarupa ananda, does the
> stated meaning of moksha hold in Advaita? Other schools have the idea of
> being in a loka in mukti where they say ananda can be experienced as a
> certain form of individuality is maintained. In fact this is an objection
> against Advaita by them: the sukha that everyone longs for is not possible
> in the Advaita parama mukti.
>
> We might say: he is one with or is the Ananda Brahman. But the question
> remains. Does any Advaitic text address this question?
>
> warm regards
> subbu
>
> On Tue, 6 Jan, 2026, 7:37 pm Ananta Chaitanya [Sarasvati], <
> bhatpraveen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Namaste.
> >
> > (
> >
> https://anythingwise.blogspot.com/2026/01/happiness-as-nature-of-self-svarupa-of.html
> > )
> >
> > The Self by svarUpa is sat, chit and Ananda. These are not three
> > attributes as they appear to be in their translations, at least the
> former
> > two, as existence, consciousness and bliss. All three words have a
> specific
> > connotation each, and they point to the same vastu, entity. The three are
> > used to take away their loaded meanings. All this is detailed by Bhagavan
> > Bhashyakara under the Taittiriya mantra: satyam j~nAnam anantaM brahma.
> > However, I would like to offer an additional perspective in the following
> > analysis, which came up while teaching Vicharasagara the 2nd time. Its
> been
> > several months since, but I hope to be able to give a certain angle to
> this.
> >
> > Out of sat, chit and Ananda that are the svarUpa dharma (for a lack of a
> > better word), sat is considered as sAmAnya while chit and Ananda are said
> > to be visheSha, based on the fact that all jIvas know that the exist.
> They
> > don't hunt for their existence, but they want it to continue by wanting
> to
> > live on and on. However, they hanker after Ananda, they search for
> > happiness. They don't know that they are the very Ananda they are looking
> > for! Where does chit fit into all this? Vicharasagara too calls this as
> > visheSha, but if one takes another look at it, one would agree that all
> > know that they are conscious entities. No one needs to point it out to
> > them, just like they know they exist and no one need point that out to
> > them. This would put chit right alongside of sat as sAmAnya dharma, not
> > visheSha like Ananda. Ananda is the make or break of all pursuits and
> hence
> > the culmination into mokSha. One can also take sAmAnya to mean easy to
> > understand with little or no inquiry in this context.
> >
> > Having established that Ananda is the only visheSha, lets see what is
> > known when more or less clearly or at least understood so. Now we all
> know
> > that the advitiyatva of all this is definitely visheSha, that is not the
> > focus here. That we do not know due to avidyA causing an AvaraNa, veiling
> > one's own svarUpa. [If one understands that this is svarUpalakShaNa of
> > AtmA, one would know that all sattA is AtmasattA, all that is chaitanya
> is
> > Atmachaitanya and any Ananda is nothing but AtmAnanda.] The focus area
> here
> > is that avasthAtrayaparIkShA also has the following interesting
> differences
> > in manifestation of sat, chit or Ananda:
> >
> > In waking: sat and chit are manifest, Ananda is veiled.
> > In dream: sat and chit are manifest, Ananda is veiled.
> > In deep sleep: sat and chit are veiled, Ananda is manifest!
> >
> > All three never manifest together in any of these three states. If all
> > three were to manifest simultaneously, we wouldn't struggle across lives
> to
> > break out of saMsAra. The deep sleep is one that gives a glimpse into our
> > AnandasvarUpa where we are happy even without any object, neither a
> waking
> > one, nor a dream one. The recollection of sleeping happily and not
> knowing
> > anything (else) shows that the sat-chit aspects are veiled while Ananda
> is
> > manifest. The Ananda is not objectified, just like our being existent and
> > conscious is not objectified. There is a massive misunderstanding when
> one
> > says one is happy that somehow this is positively objectified happiness.
> It
> > is not. If one recalls priya, moda and pramoda gradations of happiness as
> > discussed in most Vedanta texts, they tell us that the craving for any
> > object takes us away from svarUpAnanda and that object being obtained,
> the
> > craving goes away and the svarUpAnanda manifests be it via the same vRtti
> > or better still as Vicharasagara says via another AnandavRtti. Again,
> > AnandavRtti also doesn't mean that svarUpAnanda is an object of that
> vRtti.
> >
> > The anubhava word is misunderstood very badly due to the saMskAra of the
> > English word experience, where an object is almost included. anubhava is
> > actually the svarUpa of Atma itself, being interchangeable with j~nAna.
> > Incidentally today, I came across this in Bhagavan Chitsvarupacharya's
> TIkA
> > on Naishkarmyasiddhi where he glosses over the word svAtmAnubhava as svaH
> > cha asau AtmA cha svAtmA and then, svAtmA cha asau anubhavaH cha
> > svAtmAnubhavaH. Oneself is AtmA and that itself is anubhava. So, one
> cannot
> > have an experience of AtmA as an object, ever! That is to say one cannot
> > know AtmA as an object, ever. And this also means that one cannot have
> > anubhava of Ananda as an object, ever.
> >
> > When everything else ceases to be, what remains is you, the Self, which
> is
> > Ananda. There is no positive experience of Ananda. In deep sleep though,
> > there being no object, but avidyA being there, what reflects in avidyA is
> > Ananda, which was always there in waking and dream too, but it was
> > suppressed by the waking and dream object-noise. To manifest Ananda in
> > waking and dream, we necessarily need the desire for the object to
> vanish,
> > which remove the AvaraNa on Ananda in that moment, when the vikShepa
> > vanishes with the desire. In contrast, to manifest Ananda in deep sleep,
> we
> > don't need anything since there is desire for the object at that time,
> nor
> > is there any object.
> >
> > Those who have difficulty in landing on this Ananda as svarUpa of oneself
> > using suShupti as an example, almost always need samAdhyanubhava, where
> > sat, chit and Ananda all three manifest together. Of course, even this
> > can't establish advitIyatva of AtmA, which only Shruti can bring in.
> There
> > is a third way of using tarka, pure tarka which is as follows. All the
> > analysis as pointed out by any Vedanta text in the context of how
> > viShayAnanda takes place holds good. In short, if the viShaya had Ananda,
> > everyone would like the same viShaya and even one who finds happiness in
> > that object would find it all the time. Neither is the case, but there is
> > definite happiness felt in that object. It should have come from
> somewhere.
> > pArisheShAt, it belongs to the only one remaining, the subject that
> > objectifies, meaning AtmA, one's very own Self. Ergo, AtmA is
> AnandasvarUpa.
> >
> > gurupAdukAbhyAm
> > Kind rgds,
> > --Ananta Chaitanya
> > /* येनेदं सर्वं विजानाति, तं केन विजानीयात्। Through what should one know
> > That, owing to which all this is known! [Br.Up. 4.5.15] */
> >
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