The Aim of Life, Part 2
To continue from the previous article,
Every living being desires happiness. The Vedas say,
tameva viditvati mrityumeti . . . (Shvetashvatara Upanishad 3.8) “It is only by attaining God, who is the very form of bliss, that the individual soul can become blissful. There is no other way.” raso vai saha . . . (Taittiriya Upanishad 2.7) This verse states that God is the ocean of bliss. By attaining Him, the individual soul becomes blissful. In other words, we can attain happiness only by attaining God. This is something we must understand. But we have not yet understood it. Why? Because we look for happiness in the world.
The scriptures declare that the happiness found in this world is infinitesimal. There is happiness millions of times greater than this in the celestial regions: saisha nandasya mimamsa bhavati . . . (Taittiriya Upanishad 2.8) This verse states that there are ten greater levels of happiness that are millions of times greater than the greatest happiness of this world. But: abrahmabhuvanallokah . . . (Gita 8.16) True happiness cannot even be found in the celestial regions. Why? Because all the mental afflictions we experience in this world, such as desire, anger, greed, jealousy, attachment and so on, all exist there too. It is said that even Indra, the king of celestials, is miserable because he has not attained the unlimited ever-increasing bliss that is God.
This being the case, what do you think you will attain even if you did become a billionaire in this world? Spiritual science reveals that we are a soul, and that this soul is a fraction or a part of God, and as such, it is a divine entity. The soul is spiritual, and this is why it will only become happy or blissful when it attains God, and it will not stop searching for it until it does.
The world we live in, on the other hand, is material. God has provided us with this world so that we can maintain our body to fulfil our aim in life. Without the things of this world, how could we survive, let alone realise Him? The world is therefore for the sake of the body, and God is for the sake of the soul. This is the formula, and it is so simple to understand, and yet, what do we do? The exact opposite. We try to give the soul the world.
In other words, we try to derive happiness through acquiring things of this world, through relating to people of this world, through going to different places in this world, tasting different delicacies, by acquiring different things, and so on and so forth. Just think of all the things we have done in our lifetime to try and find that elusive, everlasting, ever-increasing happiness, never stopping to realise that all we have experienced to date has diminished over time. Just as every sense organ has its own respective subject, the subject of the soul is God, and the subject of the body is the material world. Thus, we can only become eternally happy by knowing God, by attaining Him. There is no other way.
Let us now ask the Vedas how God is attainable.
Shvetashvatara Upanishad, 3.30 states: anoraniyan mahato mahiyan atma . . . “The one who is graced by God succeeds in knowing Him and attaining Him.” Similar is said to Arjun in the Gita, verse 18.62: tatprasadat param shantim sthanam . . . “With God’s grace you can attain supreme bliss, you can attain God, you can see God, you can hear God and you can attain His touch.” The power of grace is also mentioned in the Ramayana: soi janai jehi dehu janai . . . “Only those whom He graces will know Him.” rama kripa binu sunu khagarai . . . “He who is graced by God succeeds in knowing God and attaining God.”
To know God, that is, to attain everlasting happiness, we need God’s grace. Now, this raises another question. What is that? How does God grace us? And what influence could we possibly have in this? Whether God graces us or not must be up to Him. When He decides to grace us, then we will know Him, then we can love Him, and attain Him. So, why has He not graced us yet?
We know that God does bestow His grace upon souls, the presence of Saints prove it. Without the grace of God, there would be no such personality as a Saint. God has graced innumerable souls — Saints like Tulsidas, Surdas, Mira, Kabir, Nanak, Tukaram, and so on. So why has God not graced us? It stands to reason that there must be a condition behind the attainment of God’s grace. Saints must have fulfilled that condition whereas till date we have not. So, what is the condition?
To be continued . . .
Kripalu Bhaktiyoga Tattvadarshan — the essence of Vedic wisdom, spirituality and devotion in daily life
