Let joy rise from within you!

OUR Vedic Scriptures say we are divine creatures whose true nature is bliss. We are created to enjoy the pleasures and the bounty of the Earth. Scriptures have clearly said that the source for this pleasure is from within. Only when bliss, joy, and pleasure spring from within, do they bring lasting joy. Being continuously in the state of inner bliss is called Enlightenment.

Be clear. We all experience moments of pleasure. What we think as pleasure is nothing but living through the present moment. We experience pleasure when we happen to live in the moment. We are in bliss when we continuously live in the present.

How to experience being in the present moment? Let us say that our mind continuously asks, craves, for a special kind of sweet. If we get that sweet, when we put the sweet in our mouth, immediately the mind, which had continuously asked for this sweet, comes to the present moment. When it comes to the present moment, it feels pleasure. If we can continuously stay in the present, we will continuously experience the bliss.

To live in the present is to feel a kind of relief. We feel a sensation of peace. Immediately we start to think that the pleasure or peace has come from the sweet.

Please be very clear. This is a common mistake for all of us. It is not the sweet that gave us the pleasure. It is the mind that did. It became a little calmer after having obtained what it asked for. The source of the experience of pleasure is from the being that has centered itself on the body.

Ramana Maharishi illustrates this with a beautiful example. He says: “When a dog bites a dry bone continuously, its mouth gets irritated and the blood from its mouth will start pouring out. Then the dog thinks the blood is coming from the bone and it starts enjoying it.”

It works the same way with all the tastes of the world, all the pleasures of the world. We think that our joy comes from the outer world. When we enjoy it, our mind that actually gets settled, becomes little calmer. It just goes inside our being. When the pleasure arises from an external experience, the pleasure lasts only as long as the impression of that experience lasts. This is why all our joys eventually lead to suffering.

When the joy arises from an inner experience that is permanent, it becomes bliss. When we experience the present moment, without regrets of the past and fears of the future, we become centered on a blissful experience.

Moving into the present moment is blissful, nithyananda.