Ananda (Bliss) - an essential subject

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The word ānanda means bliss.To be happy is one thing, but to be blissful is another. Blissful indicates a greater and longer period of happiness. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna, is sat-cit-ānanda --full of eternity, knowledge and bliss. Anything which is related to Lord Krishna brings about ānanda. Every living entity is also constitutionally eternal, blissful, and full of knowledge. To overcome the pangs of material miseries and to achieve this blissful existence, one must come to the stage of realizing that as Krishna’s eternal fragmental part and parcel, our birthright is to be situated in this state of sat-cit-ānanda.

Srila Prabhupada's books, lectures, conversations and letters offer a comprehensive presentation of this essential subject as seen in the Vaniquotes Ananda (Bliss) category. An introduction from his books is given below in the following 8 quotes.

Quotes from Srila Prabhupada's books


vanipedia.org 		A living entity becomes established in spiritual, blissful life when he fully understands that his happiness depends on spiritual self-realization, which is the basic principle of ānanda (bliss), and when he is eternally situated in the service of the Lord, who has no other lord above Him. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.19.20)



vanipedia.org 		Thus for a bhakta to become attached to family affairs is impossible, since a bhakta and his associates are liberated. Everyone is searching after ānanda, or bliss, but in the material world there can never be any bliss. It is only possible in devotional service. Attachment for family affairs and devotional service are incompatible. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.1.2)



vanipedia.org 		Kṛṣṇa is always fully independent; when He becomes subordinate to His devotees, this is a display of ānanda-cinmaya-rasa, the humor of transcendental qualities that increases His transcendental pleasure. Everyone worships Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore He sometimes desires to be controlled by someone else. Such a controller can be no one else but a pure devotee. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.9.19)



vanipedia.org 		Undoubtedly the eternal living entity cannot be annihilated at any point. But the lower species of life exist in a miserable condition, whereas one who is engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Lord is situated in the pleasurable, or ānanda-maya, status of life. The different stages described above are all in relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although in all circumstances there exist both the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities, the difference is that the Supreme Personality of Godhead always exists in the ānanda-maya stage. (Kṛṣṇa Book, Chapter 87)



vanipedia.org 		The Personality of Godhead is the complete form of sac-cid-ānanda (full life, knowledge and bliss). By realization of the sat portion of the Complete Whole (unlimited existence), one realizes the impersonal Brahman aspect of the Lord. By realization of the cit portion of the Complete Whole (unlimited knowledge), one can realize the localized aspect of the Lord, the Paramātmā. But neither of these partial realizations of the Complete Whole can help one realize ānanda, or complete bliss. Without such realization of ānanda, knowledge of the Absolute Truth is incomplete. (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 2.5)



vanipedia.org 		One who has acquired absolute knowledge and who always meditates on the Absolute Truth, knowledge, the unlimited and the Brahman effulgence, thus keeping himself in transcendental bliss, is called Ānanda-brahmacārī. One who is able to distinguish between matter and spirit, who is never disturbed by material transformations, and who meditates on the unlimited, inexhaustible, auspicious Brahman effulgence is a first-class, learned brahmacārī and is named Caitanya. (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 6.73)



vanipedia.org 		To be more clear, if one wants to attain the stage of love of Godhead, he must give up all desires for material enjoyment, he should refrain from worshiping any of the demigods, and he should devote himself only to the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He must give up the foolish idea of becoming one with the Lord and the desire to have some wonderful powers just to get the ephemeral adoration of the world. The pure devotee is only favorably engaged in the service of the Lord, without any hope of emolument. This will bring about love of Godhead, or the stage of śāntam and ānandam, as stated in this verse. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.2.31)



vanipedia.org 		The supreme destination, from which there is no return, is the abode of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person. The Brahma-saṁhitā describes this supreme abode as ānanda-cinmaya-rasa, a place where everything is full of spiritual bliss. All the variegatedness manifest there is of the quality of spiritual bliss—nothing there is material. That variegatedness is expanded as the spiritual expansion of the Supreme Godhead Himself, for the manifestation there is totally of the spiritual energy, as explained in Chapter Seven. (Bhagavad-gītā 8.22)


Ananda (Bliss) - explore more within this category.

Vanipedia has now over 903 introductory articles compiled from Srila Prabhupada's books under the series titled Essential Subjects. All these articles can be seen in the Table of Content on the right side of this article and also here in this Umbrella Category. Browse through them to relish the breadth and depth of Srila Prabhupada's teachings - There is a subject for everyone.


   
 

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