Analysis of Bliss Ānanda Mīmāṁsā in Taittirīya Upaniṣad
In book two (Ananda Vallī), anuvāka eight of Taittirīya Upaniṣad, a wisdom text dealing with Self-knowledge, we come across a most detailed analysis, mīmāṁsā, of different levels of bliss, ānanda, experienced by various species. It starts with the worldly happiness of humans and concludes with the infinite bliss of Brahman, brahmānanda.
The Upaniṣad asks us to imagine a young person learned in sacred lore, steadfast in heart, endowed with supreme health, strength, and courage; possessor of the wealth of the entire earth and ruler of the whole earth—if someone should ever possess all these gifts, then the bliss of that person would represent, let’s say, one unit of human happiness or bliss. [The Upaniṣad obviously wants to pack all that a human being can ever yearn for here on earth in terms of the unencumbered enjoyment of worldly pleasures.]
The Upaniṣad then goes on to describe the bliss of higher celestial beings, in progressive increments of 100 times the human bliss, as follows:
If this human joy be multiplied a hundred times, it is one unit of joy of the human gandharvas—and so also of a person versed in the scriptures, Vedas (śrotriya), not tormented by desires (akāmahataḥ). Please note the addition of the expression “well-versed in the scriptures and is not smitten by desire:” śrotriya cākāmahatasya. From this point onward, the Upaniṣad will add this expression with every higher successive level of bliss. It wants to convey a cardinal fact: as desire grows less and less, bliss also rises higher and higher. Please note that when Arjuna asked Śrī Kṛṣṇa to describe the marks of sthitaprajña—one who is steadfast in the wisdom of the Self—in the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā (2.54-55)—Śrī Bhagavān, starts the description with prajahāti yadā kāmān sarvān…manogatān: ‘having thoroughly casted off all the desires of the mind…’
The Upaniṣad continues to describe levels of higher bliss, increasing it by a factor of x100 at every successive level, in describing the bliss of celestial beings—divine gandharvas, pitṛs (manes), various devas (gods), Indra (lord of devas), bṛhaspati, prajāpati, and finally the bliss of Brahma, brahmānanda.
Calculated thus, one unit of the bliss of Brahman, brahmānanda, is equal to 10 power 20 (1020) times of all the viṣayānanda, bliss from all the wealth in the world enjoyed by a human being! In other words, it is limitless. A self-realized soul is established in Brahman, as described by Śrī Kṛṣṇa as follows:
brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham amṛtasyāvyayasya ca /
śāśvatasya ca dharmasya sukhasyaikāntikasya ca // 14.27
I am indeed the sole basis of Brahman, which is immortal and imperishable, and of the eternal dharma and absolute bliss.
In essence, the Upaniṣad wants to highlight the fact that the same bliss, brahmānanda, is also enjoyed by the seer who knows the Self, as revealed by the Vedas (śrotriya), and who is not tormented by desire (akāmahataḥ).
Pujay Swami Shri Dayananda Saraswati, a contemporary Vedānta teacher par excellence, says that while “śrotriyatvam is consistent…but akāmahatatvam increases” at each of the levels. “It is clear that akāmahatatvam [desirelessness] is necessary for the increase in ānanda….Bhāṣyakāra’s presentation of the different degrees of śrotriyatvam and akāmahatatvam yield the beauty of vairāgya, dispassion—increase in vairāgya will give you more happiness….We understand that vairāgya is not so much a turning away as it is a growing out of….To the extent a person is able to grow out of the desire for objects, to that extent he is happy.”[1]
In his illuminating commentary on Taittirīya Upaniṣad, Swami Dayanandaji further clarifies a very vital point of distinction between the happiness of one well-versed in Vedas, śrotriya, who is desireless, akāmahata, and the happiness of all beings in the sequence up to prajāpati: ‘All the ānanda in the sequence are janya ānanda [produced/created happiness] because of the upādhiviśeṡa [dependent on special adjuncts], lokaviśeṣa [dependent on special regions], viṣayaviśesa [dependent on special objects]. All of them are laukika ānanda [ordinary bliss] alone….It is still measurable. The śrotriya who is also akāmahata enjoys that as well. His ananda alone is not janya ānanda—it is svarūpānanda….He enjoys limitless ānanda [bliss]. Ānanda is the svarūpa, essential nature, of the ātmā [Self]….It is svābhāvika [natural]….[not dependent on any special mental mode, vṛttiviśeṣa]….Svarūpānanda is not bliss….It is not capital ‘B’ bliss. It is ānanda which is paripūrnaḥ, it is the wholeness, the limitlessness, of the ātmā [Self]….Once a person knows that is his svarūpa, he is free.’[2]
One who has attained the spiritual bliss of Brahman (brahmānanda) possesses and surpasses all other levels of happiness.
We conclude with a Peace Invocation:
ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः ।
सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत् ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
oṁ sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ sarve santu nirāmayāḥ |
sarve bhadrāṇi paśyantu mā kaścidduḥkhabhāgbhavet |
oṁ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ ||
May all be happy, May all be free from misery.
May all realize goodness, May none suffer pain.
Oṁ! Peace. Peace. Peace.
[1] See: Taittiriya Upanisad by Swami Dayananda Saraswati (Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania: Arsha Vidya Gurukulum, 2005), [transcribed and edited by John Warne], pp. 320-350.
[2] Ibid., 328, 333.
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