03 Aug 2012
The Veda says that God is Bliss (Anando Brahma…). This means that God is the possessor of bliss since the possessor is addressed by the name of the possessed object. This means that God is always in the state of joy since He is constantly enjoying. If bliss is the nature of God, God need not create this world for the sake of enjoyment. The Veda says that God alone could not enjoy and hence, this world is created by Him (Ekaki Na Ramate…). This second statement of the Veda clearly shows that the nature of God is not joy. If His nature is joy, He can remain in the state of enjoyment even without this world because enjoyment is His very nature itself. But, the first Vedic statement says that God is in the state of constant enjoyment. Hence, these two statements contradict each other. How to remove this contradiction?
If you make the second Vedic statement related to the initial state, which was before the creation of this world and keep the first statement related to the second stage, which is after the creation of the world, the contradiction is removed. This means that God did not enjoy before the creation of this world. This means that constant joy is not His nature. The second Vedic statement is fully satisfied. After the creation of this world, God started enjoying this world. Since the world continuously exists, the enjoyment also continuously exists and hence, constant joy is possible. Now, the contradiction is completely removed. Moreover, you cannot say that joy is the nature of God because joy is imaginable item whereas God is unimaginable. Therefore, you cannot define the nature of unimaginable God and hence, joy is not the inherent nature of God. Joy means the process of enjoyment, which is an action. Hence, enjoyment is an action done by God, which cannot be His inherent nature. For example, walking is an action and cannot be your inherent nature since you can remain without walking also. Inherent nature means that which should persist constantly. Similarly, awareness is also an action, which is the process of knowing. Any action cannot persist constantly. For example, you do not constantly enjoy since you are attacked by grief now and then. Similarly, your awareness is not constant, which disappears in the state of deep sleep. Hence, bliss and awareness are not inherent characteristics of God. Bliss (Ananda) and awareness (Chit) are only the actions performed now and then and cannot be taken as inherent characteristics. These two are imaginable properties, which are not inherent characteristics of even the imaginable soul. How can these two imaginable properties be inherent characteristics of the unimaginable God? Even if you say that this world will continue forever so that the joy of God also becomes continuous and constant, such a possibility also cannot make the joy an inherent characteristic of God. The reason is that if joy is the inherent characteristic of God, it should have existed even before the creation of this world. In such case, the Vedic statement that God could not enjoy before the creation of this world should be wrong. Moreover, the continuity of this world is only your assumption since the Veda says that the world is destroyed after sometime (Yat prayantyabhisamvishanti…).
God is said to be Sat (existence), Chit (awareness) and Bliss (Ananda). Out of these three aspects, it is proved that awareness and bliss are not His inherent characteristics. But, this logic applied to these two aspects should not be applied to the first aspect, which is the existence. Existence is the inherent characteristic of the unimaginable God. God existed before this creation. God exists during the time of the existence of this creation. God will exist even after the destruction of this creation. Therefore, the only inherent characteristic of the unimaginable God, which is known to us, is His existence only. The Veda says that the only information about God to us is only about His existence (Asteetyevopalabdhavyah…). The Gita also says that the absolute unimaginable God exists (Om tat sat iti). You need not doubt that since the inherent characteristic is known to us, God has become imaginable. The word ‘unimaginable’ stands only regarding the nature of God and not regarding the existence of God. We know that God exists but we do not know the nature of God. Hence, you should have careful analysis about the word ‘Sat Chit Ananda’.
This analysis is very important because you cannot also achieve the state of bliss by detaching yourself from this world. You are not greater than God to have the state of joy, detaching yourself from the world. You cannot get bliss from yourself as God did not get the joy from Himself. Even accepting the false assumption that you are God, you cannot enjoy alone within yourself by detaching from the world since the above Vedic statements say that God did not enjoy alone before the creation of this world. Krishna was in constant state of joy while involving Himself with all the worldly bonds. He was in constant joy, enjoying both happy moments and unhappy moments. He was with smiling face even in the moment of His death while the foot was constantly bleeding (Stitvaasyaamantakalepi… Gita).
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