15 July 2025
Tuesday
Note that everyone, from the beggar to the billionaire, is prompted by the urge to achieve ananda (supreme bliss), which is based on inner peace, and unaffected by ups and downs. Every activity, however elementary or earth-shaking, is subservient to this ideal. This Bliss Divine is not manufactured by any company, nor available in any shop. It is not something that can be earned from outside and added to the sum of one’s possessions. It has to sprout and grow from within, and fostered and treasured within. Take the case of the contentment and pleasure that food imparts. A hungry man may hold bundles of currency notes in his grasp, or even plenty of eatables, but unless he consumes the eatables or converts the currency into consumable food and eats them, and they become part of him, no sense of satisfaction can arise. Similarly, bliss too is an inner experience, an elevating, exhilarating inner calm. It cannot be gained by the accumulation of impediments like cars and houses, land and gold, stocks and shares. How can a cash-box appease hunger or a passbook give peace?
From Swami’s discourse of 3 February 1972
Note that everyone, from the beggar to the billionaire, is prompted by the urge to achieve ananda (supreme bliss), which is based on inner peace, and unaffected by ups and downs. Every activity, however elementary or earth-shaking, is subservient to this ideal. This Bliss Divine is not manufactured by any company, nor available in any shop. It is not something that can be earned from outside and added to the sum of one’s possessions. It has to sprout and grow from within, and fostered and treasured within. Take the case of the contentment and pleasure that food imparts. A hungry man may hold bundles of currency notes in his grasp, or even plenty of eatables, but unless he consumes the eatables or converts the currency into consumable food and eats them, and they become part of him, no sense of satisfaction can arise. Similarly, bliss too is an inner experience, an elevating, exhilarating inner calm. It cannot be gained by the accumulation of impediments like cars and houses, land and gold, stocks and shares. How can a cash-box appease hunger or a passbook give peace?