The Inner Experience of Bliss
A lecture by Sri Chinmoy
St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University; New York
Anandaddhyeva khalvimani bhutani jayante
anandena jatani jivanti
anandam prayantyabhisamvisanti
From Bliss we came into existence,
In Bliss we grow.
At the end of our journey’s close,
Into Bliss we retire.
The inner experience of Bliss. The inner experience of Bliss is the achievement of liberation and perfection.
Liberation is the death of the world-sound and the birth of the soundless sound, the Cosmic Sound.
Perfection is God’s Promise to man. Perfection is God’s Achievement in man. A liberated soul is earth’s highest Height. A perfected soul is Heaven’s deepest depth.
A liberated soul carries the banner of realisation. A perfected soul carries the banner of realisation, revelation and manifestation.
Realisation is self-discovery. Revelation is self-glowing. Manifestation is self-fulfilling. In realisation one knows that he is none other than the great God. In revelation one knows that he is none other than the benevolent God. In manifestation one knows that he is at once the great God and the benevolent God.
The inner experience of Bliss is the marriage of God’s Grace and God’s Race. God’s Grace creates humanity’s capacity. God’s Race creates humanity’s receptivity.
In capacity God is the Creator. In receptivity God is the Enjoyer. The Creator is the One in the many. The Enjoyer is the many in the One.
A seeker envisions Infinity’s Bliss. A Yogi becomes Infinity’s Bliss. An Avatar is Infinity’s Bliss. The Supreme, the Absolute Supreme, is the Source of Infinity’s Bliss. A seeker is God the tireless walker. A Yogi is God the fearless marcher. An Avatar is God the deathless runner.
The Supreme is the walker’s experience. The Supreme is the marcher’s confidence. The Supreme is the runner’s assurance.
The inner experience of Bliss far surpasses all the treasures of Divinity’s Reality and Reality’s multiplicity. We can have the inner experience of Bliss if we can acquire the inner silence and if we can have inner guidance.
The inner silence is the silence of goalless movement and thought-waves. The outer silence is the silence of the physical senses.
The inner guidance is like a mother’s constant and conscious guidance of a child. The outer guidance is like the guidance of a blind man leading another blind man.
The inner silence is the fulfilment of life and the fulfilment of reality in us. The inner guidance fulfils the individual life in the Life universal.
The inner experience of Bliss is never and can never be a gift of the miracle machine. The inner experience of Bliss is a gift of the natural self of a normal man. The inner experience of Bliss begins in self-offering and ends in God-becoming.
Without Bliss, man is an external superficiality. With Bliss, man is a fulfilling inner and outer reality. Without Bliss, man is a song of frustration and destruction. With Bliss, man is constant fulfilment and constant perfection.
In the spiritual life a surrendered disciple is his Master’s growing Bliss, and a totally surrendered, unconditionally surrendered disciple is his Master’s ceaseless Bliss.
In the spiritual life we need experience, we need confidence, we need assurance. Experience is the discovery of infinite Life within us. Confidence is the supreme mastery of our soul over darkness and night. Assurance is our inseparable oneness with the Light of the Supreme.
Night we were. Light we are. Delight we shall be.
Published in Promised Light from the Beyond.
