Rasa in the sadhaka deha and the siddha deha.

Dr. Jayalakshmi Alankar shared this video, wherein the good doctor Lustig explains scientifically the difference between pleasure and happiness, dopamine and serotonin..


Her summary: "Pleasure is SATISFACTION derived from things and persons OUTSIDE US.
Happiness is SATISFACTION derived from the CORE OF DEEPEST BEING INSIDE US." - so simple to understand :)



I think prema-sukha is happiness AND pleasure.
It is pleasure experienced as waves in the ocean of happiness.

This thought was provoked by the sheer impossibility
of tasting ALL of the rasa that is present in so many writings
of so many rasika mahatmas
of so many sampradayas,
and knowing that I have to stick to ONE to get it.
That I have to concentrate on ONE toenail or whatever,
one sentence of one book.
That is when the rasa hits. Not otherwise.

The key to the door goes through one keyhole.

And yet, the thirst
-- the thirst of one with cholera --
to drink it all,
even in the frustration of knowing it is impossible,
even while knowing that merely drinking one drop
would give it all,
is a wave in the glorious ocean of sadhana rasa.

It combines kama with prema,
or it is kama-maya prema,
or it is prema, which is confused as kama.
It is the overall picture, the story of your life,
the great adventure of finding God,
of having found That in Him and Her,
and becoming closer and closer to Them
in their penetrating, continuous, ever strobe-lighting variety,
that leaves you bobbing up and down
in a calm ocean of pure ecstasy.

ami kinibo luṭibo, harināma rasa...
rase māṭiẏā, ha-ibo bibaśa
rasera rasika caraṇa paraśa
koriẏā majibo rase anibāra
kobe hobe bolo se din āmāra.

I will buy it in the market of the Holy Name
I will steal it, but I will have the rasa of the Name.
I will become intoxicated and not know which way to turn.
I will take the dust of the rasika's feet
and submerge into the limitless ocean of rasa.
When, O when, will that day be mine?
They are two sides of one coin.
The yearning and the having.
And even when having, one yearns,
or yearns to yearn.

Happiness, in Lustig's thought, is sattva guna.
He is right. But we are interested in the nirguna,
which has three _divine_ gunas,
without which there could be no lila.

They are still confusing the terms. What I am talking about is Lustig's idea of happiness and pleasure as mutually incompatible psycho-physical states, one leading to misery (pleasure) and the other to happiness, which is a calm and constant steadiness of well-being.

These are easily recognizable extremes presented since time immemorial in the Upanishads and so on. It is recognized by Vaishnavas as a duality, that of either liberation or sense-enjoyment at two extremes of a particular spectrum..In that scheme,They are still confusing the terms. What I am talking about is Lustig's idea of happiness and pleasure as mutually incompatible psycho-physical states, one leading to misery (pleasure) and the other to happiness, which is a calm and constant steadiness of well-being.

These are easily recognizable extremes presented since time immemorial in the Upanishads and so on. It is recognized by Vaishnavas as a duality,that of either liberation or sense-enjoyment. Sattva-guna is a necessary prerequisite for liberation, i.e. it s on the side of the continuum that leads to liberation, the others being in the opposite direction..

Now Prema is the Vaishnava state that is beyond liberation.
It is the synthesis of bhoga and tyaga,
combining the best of both.

Why? Because in both the sadhana stage and the siddha stage
one is engaged in lila!
Lila in the sadhaka stage is your own sadhana story.
Of course, you are doing some sadhana,
but you are watching your progress, that is your story.

But you are also playing a role in a play,
the name of which is "finding God."
In other words, you are creating a particular identity,
and that idenity is called sadhaka.
And this story, if well written by you, is full of rasa.
This story is the story of a writer of one story,
the story of the sadhaka. That's you.

It is the rasa that perhaps culminates in such a revery:

শ্রী-রূপ পশ্চাতে আমি রহিব ভীত হঞা ।
দোঁহে পুনঃ কহিবেন আমা পানে চাঞা ॥১॥
সদয় হৃদয়ে দোঁহে কহিবেন হাসি ।
কোথায় পাইলে রূপ এই নব দাসী ॥২॥
শ্রী-রূপ মঞ্জরী তবে দোঁহা বাক্য শুনি ।
মঞ্জুলালী দিল মোরে এই দাসী আনি ॥৩॥
অতি নম্র চিত্ত আমি ইহারে জানিল ।
সেবা কার্য দিয়া তবে হেথায় রাখিল ॥৪॥
হেন তত্ত্ব দোঁহাকার সাক্ষাতে কহিয়া ।
নরোত্তমে সেবায় দিবে নিয়ুক্ত করিয়া ॥৫॥

śrī-rūpa paścāte āmi rahiba bhīta hañā |
doɱhe punaḥ kahibena āmā pāne cāñā ||1||
sadaẏa hṛdaẏe doɱhe kahibena hāsi |
kothāẏa pāile rūpa ei naba dāsī ||2||
śrī-rūpa mañjarī tabe doɱhā bākya śuni |
mañjulālī dila more ei dāsī āni ||3||
ati namra citta āmi ihāre jānila |
sebā kārya diẏā tabe hethāẏa rākhila ||4||
hena tattba doɱhākāra sākṣāte kahiẏā |
narottame sebāẏa dibe niẏukta kariẏā ||5||

I will stand behind Sri Rupa, trembling shyly,
the Two will look at my face and ask,
ask with merciful hearts and laughing,
"Where did you find this new servant-girl, Rupa?"
Sri Rupa hears their words and says,
"Manjulali brought this servant to me.
I saw that she was of extreme humility,
so I gave her some service to perform
and I am keeping her.

And saying this directly to the Two
she will engage this Narottam in their service.

[The vyashti guru, Sri Gururupa Manjari,
in progressive fashion, through guru-parampara,
hands you over to the samashti guru, Sri Manjari.
This is a different guru parampara:
it is your personal experience of guru tattva in your life.]

But the sadhana of a rasika bhakta is to meditate on the nitya-vihara. That is supposedly where the sadhaka lila ends, but it doesn't.

It doesn't because a seva-dasi is always a sadhika,
serving the pleasure of Yugala Kishore.
writing their play and watching them perform.

In the beginning, this new duality seemingly pits one lila against another,
that of interior and exterior, and this is what makes both of them rasa-maya.

As a matter of fact, without the rasa in the sadhaka deha,
i.e., in the sadhaka lila,
i.e., by learning to see that IT IS GOD's lila,
it's his lila with you and you alone,
that when objectified, separated from yourself,
and then IDENTIFIED with,
just as if watching yourself in a film or a play,
the condensed, essential version of a long story,
of perhaps a multilifetime story with multiple rejected versions,
with the dramatic bits played up or down
to tell one grand story that you could tell your grandchildren
and that rasa, or variable gratification,
that comes with each telling
then propels you into stronger meditation on the eternal nitya-vihara,

Oh Vaishnava sadhaka!
which dazzles with its beauty
which drowns you with its intensity
which embraces you in the ever union of the Divine Couple.


Comments

Anonymous said…

My person loves the symbolism of this story:

http://news.vrindavantoday.org/2010/11/gopashtami-the-day-krishna-was-named-govinda/

As we both know Jagadananda Das (or at least, ones readers should be getting a glimmer of insight by now), its symbolism is describing purely esoteric tantric practice.

M.N.
Jagadananda Das said…
In a similar, other approach, to another biologically rooted duality that has spiritual repercussions. A nicely emotional contribution from a woman who lost half her brain and found it a big learning moment. But in terms of the article above, it leads to a similar thought process.

Where does the duality combine for maximum transcendental effect?

http://awarenessact.com/harvard-trained-brain-researcher-has-a-stroke-and-figures-out-the-mystery-of-life/

Thanks to Cliff Kirk.
Anonymous said…

Where does the duality combine for maximum transcendental effect?

All duality combines when there is a one-pointed state of 'no-mind'.

How is this state achieved?

Generate the procreative life force and take it above the skull - "Govardhana hill" (my person has spoken how to do this many times), take no thought, focus the mind on the inner sound, when the light presents itself (as a small star at first)concentrate the mind on this single point (of light); the rest you can find out by practice.
Anonymous said…

It's funny (in a good way), my person is currently reading this (page 563):

http://www.academia.edu/33640757/On_the_Meaning_and_Function_of_%C4%80de%C5%9B%C3%A1_in_the_Early_Upani%E1%B9%A3ads

UB IV.24.12–13: tasyaiṣa ādeśo yo ‘yaṃ dakṣiṇe ‘kṣann antaḥ tasya yac
chuklaṃ tad ṛcāṃ rūpaṃ yat kṛṣṇaṃ tat sāmnāṃ yad eva
tāmram iva babhrur iva tad yajuṣām ya evāyaṃ cakṣuṣi
puruṣa eṣa indra eṣa prajāpatis samaḥ pṛthivyā sama ākāśena
samo divā samas sarveṇa bhūtena eṣa paro divo dīpyate eṣa
evedaṃ sarvam ity upāsitavyam

The indication of it, [namely, brahman,] is this one here who
is in the right eye. What it has as white (((shining))), that is the form of the
Ṛgveda verses; what as black, that [is the form] of the Sāman
songs; what as copperlike, reddish, that [is the form] of Yajuṣ
formulas. As for the puruṣa himself in the eye, he is Indra, he
is Prajāpati, [he is] the same with the earth, the same with the
[intermediate] space, the same with heaven, the same with all
that has existed; he shines beyond heaven; this all is he alone.
Thus should man reverently approach and venerate [him].

Notes

The Ṛgveda (Sanskrit: ऋग्वेद ṛgveda, from ṛc "praise, shine"[1] and veda "knowledge")

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda

"White": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/white#English

from Proto-Indo-European *ḱweydos, a byform of *ḱweytos ‎(“bright; shine”‎).

Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/hw%C4%ABtaz

Anonymous said…

Does one perceive a twinkle in your eye Jagadananda Das (M.N. smiles)?

http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/tut-scans/taa_i_3_25_35.jpg

(See the top-right register, the figures whom have taken the Serpent power above the skull and have sublimated it to perceive the light)
Anonymous said…

Oh, forgot to mention in previous; the middle register is the "Lions Roar."
Prem Prakash said…
It's this kind of writing that makes me proud to call Jagananda dass a friend, and a teacher.

Seems to me the dualism of bhakti transcends the satisfaction of the jnani, etc. by requiring us to deal with the issue of pleasure. Everyone, even our psychologist friends, agree true happiness is found within, via independence. Happiness, though, doesn't attend to the question I think of in terms of an itch on the back. There's one spot on our backs that we can never reach on our own. It takes another to scratch that part, and provide the pleasure of relief from annoyance and delight in touch. I'd propose the search for a worldly relationship, event, or activity is the mundane solution. When we seek God and ask Them to be the One(s) who scratch that part we can never get to, our quest becomes divine.

In terms of seeking rasa and the crazy desire to drink of everything, I am reminded of something I heard many years ago. Someone told me the difference between the Buddha dharma and the greater Sanatana dharma (in this case, Shaivism), is the Buddhists seek balance through moderation, via the middle path. The Shaivite, and I think this applies to the Vaisnava bhakta, too, seeks balance by pushing the extremes of what seem to be polar opposites. The Buddhist would balance the see-saw by securing something in the middle, the pagala bhakta would find balance by putting weights on the seats.
Prema Samputa said…
The materialistic person addicted in the role play of materialistic pond (jalaashaya) which is full of filth and lust. What he thinks of pleasure is suffering indeed. But again and again he falls in this trap and a mystery for him to get out of it.

A transcendentalist, one who has liberated by the mercy of a pure devotee or Krsna, always immersed in the thoughts of a role play in the association of vrajavasis which is full of rasa and love. What he thinks of pain due to separation is a pleasure indeed. So he again and again immersed in these thoughts and for him falling back into the jalaashaya is unimaginable.
Anonymous said…

Prem Prakash said: "The Shaivite, and I think this applies to the Vaisnava bhakta, too, seeks balance by pushing the extremes of what seem to be polar opposites. The Buddhist would balance the see-saw by securing something in the middle, the pagala bhakta would find balance by putting weights on the seats."

M.N. replied: And what of the Kaula? After all, the Kaula lets go of everything (even the physical body) and (naked) crosses over the threshold-of-life-and-death (in the lucid vehicle of the light-body) to become as one with the ocean of consciousness (of the great light).

Is the real truth, to unite all opposites and withdraw them to the fulcrum of ones own balance (a single point [12 fingers] beyond the mind...). Does this last (12th) "finger of the intellect" raised in the love of truth point the way to go (through the ring of truth - the halo that one wears as a sign of this consummated union)?
Anonymous said…

As this image of Viṣṇu implies; in the love of truth, one places the finger of one's own intellect (in union) held up through the ring of truth:

See: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Bhagavan_Vishnu.jpg

And in balance, the opposite arm holds a conch shell; when one places the shell to ones ear, does one not perceive the sound of the ocean (of consciousness)?
Anonymous said…

In the love of truth, one must find balance, balance in all things - as in all things this balance exists; from the sub-atomic light of the atom to the great torsion of the universe there is balance.

Contemplate the scale of Ma'at (m3ˤt):

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/BD_Weighing_of_the_Heart.jpg/1920px-BD_Weighing_of_the_Heart.jpg

From the book of coming forth into the light:

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maat

Notes

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaru

And in association see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BThTwwNXeLI

Thoth (dhwty), see:

Source: https://www.ancient.eu/Thoth/
Anonymous said…
The following link is to an interesting article from the Buck Institute for research on aging; it is relative to your topic on this post Jagananda Das.

In the yogic literature one will find many references to food restriction (and eating tasteless food) as part of sadhana; it looks as if science is only just catching up.

Kind regards,

M.N.

Here is the article:

http://www.buckinstitute.org/buck-news/can-we-extend-healthspan-altering-perception-food

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