Let Joy Rise From Within You!

By Staff

Ancient Vedic Scriptures say that man is a creature of bliss. Man enjoys the pleasures and the bounty of the Earth. The source for this pleasure is not in external things, as we think, but actually is from within. Only when bliss, joy, and pleasure well up from within, does it bring lasting joy. Beyond joy is bliss. Being continually in the state of inner bliss is called Enlightenment. We all experience moments of pleasure. What we think of as pleasure is nothing but living in the present moment. We experience pleasure when we happen to be in the moment. We are in bliss when we continuously live in the moment.

How can we experience being in the present moment? Let us say that our mind continuously asks or craves for a special kind of sweet. If we get that sweet, when we put the sweet in our mouth, immediately the mind, which has continuously asked for this sweet, comes to a stand still to cherish that moment. When the mind comes to the present moment, it feels pleasure. If we can continuously stay in the present, we will continuously experience bliss. To live in the present is to feel a kind of relief – a sensation of peace. However, immediately, we think that the pleasure or peace has come from something outside of us.


Please be very clear: this is the greatest mistake that we make. The mind that craved the sweet thinks that the satisfaction of tasting the sweet gave the pleasure. The mind is a little calmer after having obtained what it asked for, but the source of the pleasure is actually from within not from the sweet! It springs from the being that has centered itself in our body. Ramana Maharishi, an enlightened Master, illustrates this with a beautiful example. He says: 'A dog gnaws at a dry bone continuously with a desire to eat the marrow. The dog bleeds from his mouth. But the dog thinks that the blood is oozing from the bone and it begins to enjoy the bone anew.'

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