Shri Dattaswami http://www.esnips.

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O ADVAITIN! DIFFERENTIATE PEACE & BLISS

O Learned And Devoted Servants of God,

[Dasara: Day-4 October 2, 2006] The Advaitin says that by
attaining the self [Atman or soul], which is just pure awareness, one
attains infinite bliss. This is absurd since it contradicts practical
experience. In every living being the soul (pure awareness) exists but
every soul is not blissful. If you say that the impurity in the soul hinders
the bliss, one can easily achieve the pure awareness atleast temporarily
during meditation with a little practice. In such meditation, peace is
experienced but not bliss. Peace is not bliss. Zero is not plus. Even zero
may appear as plus relatively with respect to minus. But with respect to
plus, zero is relatively minus. In meditation you are relieved from
worldly stress for sometime and such relief may appear as bliss
relatively with respect to the stress you had. You may feel that it is bliss
since you have not tasted the real bliss separately. If peace is bliss, God
would have been entertained with such ‘bliss’ through peace without
this creation [in the absence of creation God alone existed and there was
nothing to disturb His peace]. If such bliss existed already there would
have been no need for any entertainment. Bliss is higher than
entertainment. In that case, the Veda would not have said that God was
not entertained when He was alone in peace without creation (Ekaki Na
Ramate). Entertainment is needed for happiness and hence, the state
before entertainment must have been without happiness. If God did not
have entertainment before creation, it means that God was not happy. In
that state how can you say that He was blissful? Assuming that God was
happy even before creation, He must have been bored with such
continuous happiness and the state of boredom shows lack of happiness.
Only after creating this creation, which consists of variety by alternating
comedy and tragedy, did He derive continuous happiness as per the
Veda. Such happiness continues throughout the existence of creation
and therefore God is blissful.
Reason for Continuous Happiness
The state of boredom is removed by the alternating disturbance in
creation. Bliss is defined as continuous happiness. The word Ananda
(bliss) is a composite of ‘Aa’ and ‘Nanda’. ‘Aa’ means continuity.
‘Nanda’ means happiness. The reason for the continuity of happiness of

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God during the existence of creation is His detachment to the creation

during tragedy. The tragedy removes the boredom obtained from the
previous comedy and the detachment to the tragedy avoids misery.
Together this means entertainment—deriving happiness continuously
without boredom. God is like a spectator of a cinema (Sakshi cheta—
Veda) and after sometime God is like the actor acting in a role in the
drama when He enters this creation (Tadevanu Pravishat—Veda). In
both cases, He covers Himself with the ignorance of Maha Maya and
Mula Maya and becomes equal to the individual soul. But He is in full
realization of the awareness of the unreal nature of Maya. God in human
form restricts Himself to the lowest level of Maya like the individual
soul. Such knowledge of the unreality of Maya in tragic situations keeps
Him in the continuous entertainment (bliss). This technique is possible
even for the soul because the soul is also above Maya and can attain the
knowledge of the unreality of Maya by self-analysis. The difference
between God and the soul is that God is really above the Maha Maya
and Mula Maya also, where as the soul is not really above Maha Maya
and Mula Maya.
Ofcourse, God also gets controlled by Maha Maya and Mula Maya
like the individual soul by imposing ignorance on Himself. The
difference is that God is controlled by apparent and artificial ignorance
whereas the individual soul is really controlled and there is no point of
ignorance in the case of individual soul. God crosses Maha Maya and
controls the Mula Maya by simply removing His apparent ignorance
when He has to perform some miracles in an emergency. Even a blessed
soul can perform miracles by the grace of God. He too crosses the Maha
Maya and controls the Mula Maya. But infact, the soul cannot cross
really Maha Maya. The soul is awareness, which is a component of
Maha Maya. The soul cannot cross itself. The soul cannot control Mula
Maya because the soul can never dream of crossing Mula Maya.
Therefore, whenever an individual soul performs miracles, God alone
performs miracles in the name of the individual soul. Demons do not
realize this and become egoistic thinking that they [souls] performed the
miracles. The demon-soul as well as the spectators [other souls in the
world] are under the illusion that the individual soul is performing the
miracles. But the devotee realizes the truth and reveals it to the public
whenever a miracle happens through him. God can even cross the Mula
Maya, if God wishes to withdraw the world including space. Mula Maya

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is the primary energy or space. Such a situation is possible but it does

not happen. The primary energy exists continuously just as the roll of
the film is preserved even after the show is over. The film [primary
energy] contains the subtle impressions of the world (Avyaktam). The
producer can destroy the film but he is not a fool to destroy it just to
satisfy you regarding his capability to destroy the film! When God
enters into this world through the human form, He remains only in the
status of a realized individual soul by crossing just the Maya and
keeping Himself controlled by the Maha Maya and Mula Maya. In this
state, the entire drama of His divine play is also limited only to Maya.
There is no need of crossing the higher Maha Maya and control the
highest Mula Maya in order to do a miracle unless such emergency
action is required, which is very rare. God is reluctant to perform
miracles frequently because the miracles have a side effect on the
devotees of making them selfish and tempting them to use the super
power of God for selfish ends.
God stands just in the position of a realized soul to set an example
for the ignorant soul, which is controlled by Maya. An ignorant soul
laughs and weeps alternately, facing the corresponding scenes of
happiness and misery. You can propose that such an ignorant soul can
cross Maya and be in continuous happiness (bliss) like God by its own
self effort (self attainment) following the above divine technique. But
you cannot attain this divine technique of God without the grace of God.
Otherwise, you might also say that God is unnecessary because such
bliss can be attained by even self-attainment. But it is not correct
because the soul can only attain peace but not bliss by self-attainment.
You may say that peace can be treated as relative bliss and therefore real
bliss is not needed. But even such self-attainment cannot be continuous
without the grace of God. The higher Maha Maya disturbs your state by
insulting you, since you cannot cross the Maha Maya. Since Maya is
under the control of Maha Maya, you will fall again to the state of an
ignorant soul and even the Maya will insult you under the instruction of
the superior Maha Maya.
Even Maya insulted the sages, when a beautiful dancer from
heaven appeared! The Maya of the beautiful form controlled them.
Their self-attainment simply crashed! Totapuri is the best example of a
realized soul; he had self-attainment. Yet he could not overcome the
feeling (Maya) of stomach pain and tried to commit suicide. Therefore,

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one may cross Maya (forms and feelings) temporarily by self-

attainment. Such a state is temporary because Maya will trap him again
within a short span of time. Even during the temporary existence of such
a state, the soul only enjoys peace and not real bliss. Therefore, there is
no use of this temporary state because the real fruit is not achieved.
If you accept God and surrender to Him, the entire story changes.
Your self-attainment remains permanent because Maya or Maha Maya
will not try to disturb you by the grace of God. Shankara acknowledged
the necessity of the grace of God in the path of self-attainment
(Ishwaraanugrahaadeva…). By the grace of God you can even attain
the real bliss from the world because your knowledge of the unreality of
Maya is not disturbed and therefore you will enjoy even the tragic
scenes continuously. Therefore, without the grace of God, all your self-
effort is only a modification of your foolish and rigid egoism.
Still, if you do not realize this truth in spite of the divine preaching
of God, God will leave you to your fate. You become a debarred and
condemned soul. In that case God blesses you to have the state of self-
attainment permanently because you desired it so rigidly. The father will
be vexed with the rigid son and leave him after sometime of advice.
Now what is the future of this rigid Advaitin? God sanctions the
materialization of such intensive desire in the next birth of that soul
because God is the Creator (father) of even such a rigid soul. God has
waited for the present birth of the soul hoping for some change in him
before death. God is always kind and never has the aspect of revenge
even if you scold Him. Unable to convert you He sanctions your
irrevocable desire in the next birth. You have continued in such a state
of continuous peace of pure awareness (Chit) throughout your life as per
your strong wish. Such a state of Chit is exactly found in meditation and
even the self awareness disappears in deep sleep. The state of
meditation, which has no other feelings except a trace of self awareness,
is the state of a tree. The state of deep sleep, in which even that trace of
Chit disappears by the total transformation of Chit in to the basic inert
energy, is the state of a stone. The tree has almost complete peace where
as the stone has absolutely complete peace. An Advaitin as a Sanyasin is
a tree in human form and as an Avadhuta is a stone in human form. God
still waits and sees whether such a soul can change atleast a few minutes
before death. When there is no hope of change, such a soul will be
permanently materialized as a tree or a stone in the future birth. This is

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the fate of the Advaitin, who does not accept God other than the self.
The strongest desire always materializes (Yat Bhavam Tat Bhavati).
People think that such materialization is the power of the soul. But
it is not correct. The actual truth in this statement is that God sanctions
the materialization of the strongest desire of the soul because every soul
is the son or daughter of God. The soul is under the illusion that it has
the inherent power of materialization of its desire through strong will. It
does not know that the materialization of its desire is taking place due to
the will of God since it does not understand the advice that God was
trying to give it for a long time. The father advises the son to study well.
But the son is rigid and does not study. The son wants to enjoy the
wealth without study. Finally the father is vexed and gives the part of
the property, which was earned by him (father) to the son. Now the son
thinks that his desire is fulfilled because of his own strong will which
came from the powerful self. He does not know that due to his foolish
rigidity, the kind father who was unable to change him, gave him some
self earned property and fulfilled his desire. The Advaitin thinks that the
self can achieve anything by its powerful will because the self itself is
God. They follow the path of continuously desiring for the fruit since
they believe that the strong will always materializes due to the power of
the self. Can you become the king by constantly desiring to become
king or by constantly thinking that you are already the king? The
Advaitin constantly thinks that he is God (Aham Brahmaasmi) and he
believes that he becomes God by such constant thinking due to the
power of the self, which is already God. It is like the foolish son
thinking that the property given by his father is the property earned by
himself due to his powerful desire. The Advaitin can also feel that he
achieved the state of a tree or a stone by his powerful will. The Brahman
of the Advaitin is pure awareness without any contact with the world
and such Brahman, representing perfect silence can be either a tree or a
stone. For a tree or stone too, Ishwara is unreal as Advaitin believes.