Conscious freedom from Pleasure & Pain
by Swami Sivananda
by Swami Sivananda
There are only facts, vibrations or phenomena outside.
Prakriti (nature) is blind. Prakriti is quite indifferent.
There is neither pleasure nor pain in objects. It is
all mental creation, mental perception, mental jugglery. It is only the mental
attitude or certain kind of mental behaviour towards objects that brings joy or
grief, pleasure and pain.
Maya has her powerful seat in the imagination of the
mind.
Mind always runs after pleasure, because it is born of
Ananda Brahman. You love a mango, because it affords you pleasure. Of all
things, you love your own self most. This love of the self gives the clue to
the fact that Ananda or bliss must be the nature of the Self.
PLEASURE
AND PAIN
Pleasure arising from external objects is evanescent,
transitory and fleeting. It is mere nerve-titillation and mental deception.
Jiva (the human being, the incarnated in
a body soul) joins with mind and Vritti and enjoys the sense-objects. The
thing that gives you pleasure gives you pain also.
It is difficult to divert the mind which, from
infancy, has fallen into the pernicious habit of seeking external pleasure and
it shall ever persist in doing so, unless you give it something superior to be
amused with, a greater form of pleasure to delight in.
Pleasure is a particular kind of feeling in the mind.
The mind expands during pleasure. Coolness prevails in the mind; during pain,
the mind contracts. Considerable heat is produced in the mind.
No true, lasting satisfaction comes from the enjoyment
of worldly objects. Yet, people rush headlong towards objects even when they
know that the objects are unreal and the world is full of miseries. That is
Maya
IMAGINATION
Pleasure and pain, beauty and ugliness are all false
imaginations of the mind. Mind is a false illusory product. Conceptions of the
mind also must, therefore, be false. They are all like a mirage in the desert.
What is beautiful for you is ugly for another. Beauty and ugliness are relative
terms. Beauty is only a mental concept. It is only a mental projection.
Real beauty is in the Self only.
Pleasure and beauty reside in the mind and not in the
objects. Mango is not sweet; the idea of mango is sweet. It is all Vritti. It
is all mental deception, mental conception, mental creation.
Destroy the Vritti; beauty vanishes. The husband
stretches his own idea of beauty in his ugly wife and finds his wife very
beautiful through passion.
PLEASURE
AND CHILDREN
Some say that children are very happy. It is wrong.
They only become exuberant. They get
serious reaction also. They have no balanced mind.
They weep for hours together for nothing at all.
It is only a man of balanced mind that can really be
happy.
THE WHEEL OF SAMSARA
·
From experience of pleasure samskaras (impressions) are embedded in the
subconscious mind (Chitta) (The seed of Samskaras are imbedded in the Karana
Sarira (Causal body)
·
From Samskaras emanate subtle desires Vasanas like swarms of locusts.
·
From Vasana flows the stream of desire for sensual indulgence.
·
From enjoyment of objects of desires arises internal craving and memory of
pleasures.
·
Then the mind thinks and imagines of objects again and again.
·
Thus attachment is created.
·
Imagination plays a great deal in this process. Maya has her powerful seat in
the imagination.
·
The mind plans and schemes. You are swayed by the passions.
·
You exert yourself physically to possess those objects and enjoy them. In your
efforts, you favour some and disfavor others through like-dislike (Raga and
Dvesha).
·
You will have to enjoy the fruits of your virtuous and vicious actions.
Through
this six-spoked wheel of: Raga-Dvesha, virtue-Vice and Pleasure-pain, this
Samsaric wheel of birth and death moves on without stopping from beginningless
time.
From Avidya ignorance emanates Aviveka
(non-discrimination). From Aviveka originates Ego Ahankara and (identification
with body) Abhimana. From Abhimana emanates Raga-Dvesha. From Raga-Dvesha comes
Karma. From Karma comes the body. From body comes misery. This is the chain of
bondage with seven links.
This is the chain of misery.
DESIRES
Desire is the enemy of peace. You have become the
beggar of beggars through desires.
Free yourself from the firm grip of crocodiles of
desires. Do not get disheartened under trials.
Cheer yourself up. Stand up like a lion. Destroy
the impure mind with the help of the pure mind.
Make friendship with the Sattvic mind and rest
yourself peacefully in Atman.
DESTRUCTION OF DESIRES LEADS
TO ATMIC BLISS
Mind associated with desires is bondage. Mind free
from desires is Mukta (free). Desires are themselves pain. Non-desire is itself
pure Atmic Bliss. Mere annihilation of Maya is Freedom Moksha. With the
extinction of the base Sankalpas (thoughts), there is also the extinction of
Avidya. Should all longings for the visibles cease, then such an abnegation of
mind is itself the destruction of Ajnana (ignorance) or the mind. Such a bliss
is generated through one’s efforts only. There is nothing like Purushartha
(right exertion).
~
Swami Sivananda
Read also about happiness pleasures and pains:
- · Quotes by Sri Nisargadatta about pleasure pain and real happiness book 'I Am That '
- · Gunas and happiness by Sri Aurobindo
- · What is happiness? by Sri Ramana Maharshi
- · Freedom from desire the origin of ego by Nityamuktananda
- · Your nature is happiness by Nityamuktananda
Peace love harmony