Ānanda or Bliss - The Eternal Search for True Happiness
Observe the activities of any living entity—from the tiny ant to the most powerful human politician—and you will find one common denominator: the desperate search for happiness. Why is this desire so universal? Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the soul is constitutionally composed of eternity, knowledge, and bliss (ānanda). We are searching for pleasure because it is our eternal birthright. However, by looking for ānanda in the temporary material world or in impersonal voidism, we are looking in the wrong places.
Nature of the Soul
To understand our search for happiness, we must first understand our own identity. Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that the Supreme Lord is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (the eternal form of knowledge and bliss). Because we are His intimate parts and parcels, we share this exact same nature. We do not want to die, be in ignorance, or suffer because those conditions are completely alien to our original spiritual constitution.
- Ananda means blissfulness. That is our nature. Therefore we want to live. We do not wish to die. We do not wish... Nobody wishes to die, but we are forced to die. That is our punishment.
- Why do you not like to die? Because you are eternal. Therefore atma's nature is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. This is knowledge. Sat cit ananda.
- Sat means eternity, and cit means full of knowledge, and ananda means full of joy. These are the qualifications of God and living entity. Therefore we are hankering after pleasure.
- As living entities we want enjoyment. Being, in itself, is not enough. We want bliss (ananda) as well as being (sat). In his entirety, the living entity is composed of three qualities - eternality, knowledge, and bliss.
The Illusion of Material Pleasure
Because we have forgotten our relationship with God, we attempt to extract ānanda from the physical body and the material world. Śrīla Prabhupāda repeatedly emphasizes that this is a mathematical impossibility. True ānanda is eternal, but the material body is temporary and constantly subjected to disease, fear, and death. Any pleasure experienced here is simply a brief, illusory pause between miseries.
- Ananda means blissfulness, joyfulness. There cannot be any joyfulness in this body. There are three kinds of miserable condition of material life: adhyatmika, adhibhautika, adhidaivika. So either these three or one or two is always there.
- If you study analytically that this body is simply meant for suffering, so where is ananda? There is no ananda; there is no complete knowledge; there is no eternity. Therefore it is called material. Just the opposite is spiritual life.
- First of all, you have to die. You may manufacture some so-called ananda, but you'll die. Now, suppose we are dancing here, and if we understand that immediately death will take place, then we shall not be able to enjoy the dancing.
- We are thinking that "I'm enjoying," but that is not ananda. This ananda is not fact, because we cannot enjoy this material sense pleasure for long. Everyone has got experience. It is finished. But spiritual enjoyment does not finish. It increases.
Incompleteness of Impersonal Liberation
Frustrated by material suffering, some philosophers deduce that the ultimate goal is to eliminate all desires and merge into a formless, spiritual void (the brahma-jyotir). Śrīla Prabhupāda strongly refutes this. While merging into the Lord's effulgence grants eternal existence (sat) and knowledge (cit), it completely lacks ānanda. Because the soul cannot remain in a joyless void forever, impersonalists inevitably fall back down to the material world.
- Simply to rise to the platform of Brahman, that is sat, partial realization of the Absolute Truth. Sat. Then cit. Cit means knowledge. That is also partial. Ananda. Sac-cid-ananda. When there . . . ananda you cannot get.
- In this way they are trying to merge into the Brahman effulgence, but where to stay? They can stay in the Brahman effulgence as minute particle of soul, but the soul wants ananda, so what is ananda there.
- Those who are after severe austerities, they rise up to the Brahman effulgence, but on account of his original nature of ananda, he cannot remain there. He again falls down.
- Sometimes big, big sannyasis, they gave up this world as brahma satyam jagan mithya, but because they could not get ananda, they come down again. Again they become busy in opening hospital and school and philanthropic work, politics.
Variety is the Mother of Enjoyment
True happiness requires interaction, reciprocation, and dynamic form. Śrīla Prabhupāda frequently states that "variety is the mother of enjoyment." The spiritual world is not a static light; it is a realm of infinite, transcendental variety. God is a person who desires to exchange love, and it is only within these divine, variegated relationships that the soul experiences complete, unadulterated ānanda.
- Enjoyment, ananda means enjoyment. Enjoyment cannot be impersonal; there must be varieties. That is enjoyment. You have got experience that when there is a bunch of flower of different colors it is very enjoyable.
- So the ananda, the spiritual happiness is not without varieties, anandamayo 'bhyasat (Vedanta-sutra 1.1.12). Spirit, Brahman, Parabrahman, is full of happiness, and how happiness can be possible without varieties? Variety is the mother of enjoyment.
- The speaking is very pleasing when there are many persons here. I cannot speak alone here. That is not ananda. I can speak here at night, dead of night, nobody here. That is not ananda. Ananda means there must be others.
- We can experience ananda perfectly in the association of Krsna. We can associate with Krsna as a servant, a friend, a father, a mother or a conjugal lover.
Supreme Reservoir of Pleasure
The ultimate realization of the Absolute Truth is the realization of Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that Kṛṣṇa is the supreme reservoir of all pleasure. By giving up our futile attempts to enjoy independently and instead linking our consciousness to Kṛṣṇa through devotional service, our capacity for ānanda expands infinitely, like an ocean that never stops increasing.
- Krsna is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha (Brahma-samhita. 5.1), being, knowledge and bliss, with form. Impersonal understanding is understanding of the sat feature. Understanding Krsna in full is understanding all of His features. The ananda feature is realized in Bhagavan.
- Ananda is experienced when we enter the spiritual planets, where Narayana, Krsna, is present. Paras tasmat tu bhavo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktat sanatanah - Bhagavad-Gita 8.20.
- Everything in the Goloka Vrndavana planet is a spiritual expansion of sac-cid-ananda. Everyone there is of the same potency - ananda-cinmaya-rasa.
- Ambudhi means the ocean. So this ocean does not increase, but when you come to the spiritual ocean of ananda, blissfulness, it will increase daily.
Conclusion
Śrīla Prabhupāda's message is a call to awaken to our true potential. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not a dry, restrictive religion; it is the practical method for reviving our original, blissful life. By chanting the holy names, feasting on kṛṣṇa-prasādam, and engaging our senses in the favorable service of the Lord, we bypass the miseries of material life and immediately begin tasting the eternal ānanda for which we have always been searching.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Ananda (Bliss). We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience the teachings in their direct, verbatim form.