After someone attains liberation or moksha or nirvana what i know is that he is going to experience ultimate bliss. But what about sensual pleasures? Can he enjoy ultimate sensual pleasures as well in that state?
—Black mist, Egypt
Dear Friend,
When one has at last found the finest, richest, most delicately flavored chocolate, why go back to store-bought candy for children? When the soul has reaped the harvest of eternal Bliss, of what use are the fleeting pleasures of the senses? The enlightened being knows that “what goes up must come down” — for every pleasure there will come pain. The more enlightened the soul, the more quickly comes the cosmic (karmic) boomerang!
At the same time, ironically (as is the nature of the truth), the enlightened soul can better enjoy this world — what pleasures come of their own — because the soul is no longer attached or grasping for them. They come, they go: pleasure, pain, they are all the same. The enlightened soul accepts life as it is and can enjoy a beautiful sunset as a reflection of the beauty of the soul and the joy of God. But so too can the inevitable pain or disappointment remind such a one that only in God can true happiness be found.
Infinity excludes nothing. God is One. In soul-bliss, the passing impressions (vasanas) of mortal life all point back to and reinforce bliss as the only lasting reality.
Once Paramhansa Yogananda took a tour of Radio City Music Hall (a famous landmark in New York City). He paid his entrance fee and entered the facility. He toured it and admired its wonders as if it were his own. When finished, he “returned it” to its administrators!
We are all tourists in a foreign land. Let’s behave ourselves, enjoy what may be here, knowing it is fleeting, and accept what pains and sorrows must come. But let us remain ever centered in the Self, the indwelling Lord. Let God smile through our smiles, cry through our tears, but be always untouched within the divine heart.
Joy and blessings to you!
Nayaswami Hriman
