Joy

Wisdom Teachings
Essences of the Teachings

The wisdom teachings say that, by nature, we are beings filled with joy. All creation was created out of love for living beings and for the joy of those who seek bliss. However, joy lasts only as long as we do not get stuck in the world of materialism. Joy is something internal; it has no direct relation to objectivity. But the joy within radiates through a smiling face. No matter how it looks in objectivity, pleasant or unpleasant, in all situations there are people who always experience joy. With them, there is no change of weather, while in the outside the weather is always changing. If we turn inward, we find that joy has a permanence that is not found in the objective world. Happiness has a relationship with the external, objective world. Happiness and unhappiness always have a relationship to something external.

Happiness relates to the personality, the senses and the body. When it is cold outside, warmth is pleasant and we are happy to have something warm to drink. When it is very hot, we are happy to have a cool drink. This happiness is something temporary. We are attracted to external things and are happy when we are given something. This joy in things is like a mirage. We think that the joy is outside of us. Our mind thus suffers from a distortion.

People who swim across lakes, climb mountain peaks, or seek the thrill of adventure in various places around the world seek happiness in the external world through their senses. Other people seek happiness on the mental plane with the help of mind. Some seek happiness on the Buddhic plane of wisdom. When we feel that we have experienced enough joy in the external, we want to find joy in the internal. At this point, study of esotericism, discipleship, yoga, ascended masters, and divinity become significant. The point is not to simply talk about these things, but to practice them daily: alternately turn inward and grow, and then turn outward.

Most so-called civilized people make their lives more and more miserable because they think they have to work for happiness and joy. We suffer from this inner distortion when we generally work only for ourselves. This distortion is reversed by an attitude of offering. In doing so, we do not look at what we get out of our actions. By offering our actions to the environment or to our fellow human beings, inner joy develops. Yoga teaches: “You are a Sun, and the more you offer, the more you receive from higher circles, and the more you keep to yourself, the more suffocation you will have. Do your duty and be content with what comes to you.”

We are beings naturally filled with joy, but instead of feeling “I am joy,” we think we are happy when we get something or do something for ourselves. We think that if we study well and then get a good job, we will be happy. Then when we have the job and maybe a life partner, and we arrange everything accordingly, the joy is still not there. Even if children then come to us and we think they will now give us joy, we continue to run after the joy in the outside world. Looking for joy is a game in which we always lose. For long periods of time we search for joy in this way and do not find it.

We buy things like a watch or a car, but they bring little joy. In our homes, there are many things that we have purchased to enjoy, but once purchased, the joy is already forgotten. So houses become warehouses for a lot of stuff.

Wisdom says that the more we accumulate, the more we become conditioned by it. Giving gives joy and liberates; accumulating conditions and keeps us in our personality. When we act impersonally and for others, we experience joy. The joy lies in the fact that we simply act. Through selfless action, the Divine Plan is carried out through us. We can rejoice in it and simply watch it happen. We can do our part in a work, but neither does the suggestion to act come from us nor is the result ultimately as we imagine. When nothing is left behind in what we do, this is the impersonal way of acting. We receive in the form of satisfaction and in the form of joy.

In every event, consciously or unconsciously, there is constant joy, but there is no joy in holding on to the past. We neither look back nor do we look forward, but we live in the present. Doing in the present in an impersonal way what needs to be done is called knowledge or pure experience, and that experience leads to joy. It is just as a child plays to have joy. There is no “why”. Where there is a “why”, there is no pure experience of joy.

Pure joy is called bliss and is also called eternal bliss. Another name for it is the truth of existence or pure love: “May we realise the truth, the pure love and the bliss of existence.” This is the goal that the divine beings want all living beings to achieve. This is the divine thought, and this thought guides the planetary, solar, and cosmic systems. Happiness has a relationship with personality. Joy is an experience of the heart and belongs to the soul. Bliss is the state of boundless joy where we are in connection with the Supersoul, with the Divine, with Beness.

Joy is an inner dimension. A joyful event that has a deep impact on us fills us with joy inside, whenever we remember it again. Through recollection we can experience joy because it remains within the heart as a joyful memory. Even though this joy depends on something that is outside of ourselves, such as a beautiful conversation, it is a deeper dimension of joy – of the personality touched by the soul. We can also experience deep joy when we sing or make music together. Another kind of joy is the joy of hearing wisdom or music and singing or an unforgettable joyful event.

The bliss of the soul comes when we abide in the pure wisdom, Buddhi. The seed sound KLIM is the light of joy through which we can experience inexplicable joy. It is also called Brahmananda. Ananda is already bliss, and Brahmananda is indescribable. When we become Brahman, there are no more experiences, but when we are very close to Brahman, we experience ecstatic joy. It is an experience such as the gopis had, the shepherdesses of Krishna's youth. It is said that the gopis were drunk with Krishna. In this ecstatic state, we forget ourselves completely. In the seventh step of yoga, dhyana, that is, in deep meditation and connected with Brahman, we have these ecstatic states. These states begin in us already at the plane that is above the Buddhic plane, called Ananda.

When we contemplate the wisdom dimensions, we detach from mental concepts and enter into a realm where we experience enchanting and glorious visions within. This allows us to dissolve the mind into its higher state. We experience this as self-forgetfulness in connection with the Divine and the joy that accompanies it in an advanced state of yoga. We call it the “Potion of Immortality”. It is located above the mind, between the plane of Buddhi and the plane of Ananda. The more we experience this potion of immortality, the more we enter the self-forgetful state and achieve oneness. Sometimes we become so absorbed in our worship or prayer that we forget everything. This is an aspect of Neptune. The corresponding principle is called “Soma”. Soma means it gives us the essence of experience and this enables us to lose our individual consciousness in the universal consciousness. One means to experience the joy of Oneness is to worship Dattatreya while following the rules and regulations of yoga.

We can also experience this joy of oneness by regularly turning to hymns of wisdom. We can do this, but we do not have to. It is our choice. If we turn to these hymns daily, we attain inner joy and bliss of the soul, as well as physical health and other comforts on all levels of existence, and we can live the full span of life. As long as we feel rejection, we do not want to open ourselves to the experience of this joy and bliss.

Bliss, then, lies in experiencing being. In order to experience this, there must be another state in being, and that is consciousness. When consciousness connects with being, bliss occurs. This connection is essential in order to experience the appropriate bliss, joy, and happiness. We must know how to make this connection.

The seers master the art of receiving these energies through the hymns and living in accordance with these energies so that they can experience the bliss of existence, the highest and ultimate experience of existence. This is exactly how it is done in the Higher Circles, in all planes of existence.

Sources used: K.P. Kumar: The Teachings of Sanat Kumara; div. seminar notes. Dhanishta Publications, Visakhapatnam, India (www.aquariusbookhouse.com)