In the Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya Prahlāda Mahārāja, while satisfying Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva by his prayers, says, "My dear Lord of the universe, I am feeling transcendental pleasure in Your presence and have become merged in the ocean of happiness. I now consider the happiness of brahmānanda to be no more than the water in the impression left by a cow's hoof in the earth, compared to this ocean of bliss." Similarly, it is confirmed in the Bhāvārtha-dīpikā, Śrīdhara Svāmī's commentary on the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, "My dear Lord, some of the fortunate persons who are swimming in the ocean of Your nectar of devotion, and who are relishing the nectar of the narration of Your pastimes, certainly know ecstasies which immediately minimize the value of the happiness derived from religiousness, economic development, sense gratification and liberation. Such a transcendental devotee regards any kind of happiness other than devotional service as no better than straw in the street."
Ocean of bliss
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 1
According to Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya, the import of the word ittham-bhūta is "complete bliss." Transcendental bliss in the realization of impersonal Brahman becomes comparable to the scanty water contained in the pit made by a cow's hoof. It is nothing compared with the ocean of bliss of the vision of the Personality of Godhead. The personal form of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is so attractive that it comprehends all attraction, all bliss and all tastes (rasas). These attractions are so strong that no one wants to exchange them for material enjoyment, mystic powers and liberation. There is no need of logical arguments in support of this statement, but out of one's own nature one becomes attracted by the qualities of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. We must know for certain that the qualities of the Lord have nothing to do with mundane qualities. All of them are full of bliss, knowledge and eternity. There are innumerable qualities of the Lord, and one is attracted by one quality while another is attracted by another.
SB Canto 3
The śraddadhāna, or faithful devotee, can actually derive all the benefits of Bhagavad-gītā because by the omnipotency of the Lord he achieves the transcendental bliss which vanquishes attachment and nullifies all concomitant material miseries. Only the devotee, by his factual experience, can understand the import of this verse spoken by Vidura. The pure devotee of the Lord enjoys life by constantly remembering the lotus feet of the Lord by hearing kṛṣṇa-kathā. For such a devotee there is no such thing as material existence, and the much advertised bliss of brahmānanda is like a fig for the devotee who is in the midst of the transcendental ocean of bliss.
SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)
I offer my obeisances to that Supreme Personality of Godhead, the original and greatest of all beings, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. He is the author of the Vedas, and just to destroy His devotees' fear of material existence, like a bee He has collected this nectarean essence of all knowledge and self-realization. Thus He has awarded to His many devotees this nectar from the ocean of bliss, and by His mercy they have drunk it.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Nectar of Devotion
Renunciation Through Wisdom
The scriptures have clearly indicated that the ecstasy of devotional service to the Supreme Lord is far superior to the bliss of impersonal liberation, brahmānanda. Indeed, the happiness of merging into the Lord's existence (sāyujya-mukti) is like a puddle of water in a calf's hoofprint compared with the ocean of bliss derived from devotional service. The devotee never prays for the jñānī's sāyujya-mukti, for it is an impossible proposition. By sāyujya-mukti the impersonalists mean relinquishing one's identity, or individuality. This is nothing less than spiritual suicide.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Guest/Devotee: Well, uh, sometimes I feel, uh, what they call cakras. Like I feel very light over here, and I feel something swirling over here that I think they call the thousand-petalled lotus. Is this just my imagination, or are these things real?
Prabhupāda: Yes, it is imagination. If you just open your skull, you will find no lotus there. (laughter) So it is your imagination, that's all. These imaginations are prescribed for persons who are too much absorbed in this bodily concept of life. "Here is a lotus, here is a manaḥ sarovara, and here is ocean of bliss, here is... Oh, you have to find out." Just to make him concentrate. Just like a naughty boy, to make him stop nonsense doing, "Please sit down here. Stop this all." Our proposition, "I am not this body. Even there is lotus, I don't care for it." Do you follow? I am not this body. Even there is lotus, what I have to do with this lotus? My first proposition is I am not this body.
Vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam means full knowledge, full knowledge. We are hankering after knowledge; then we come to the point of full knowledge. Vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam. Ānanda. We cannot increase ānanda here. In the material sense gratification, ānanda does not increase. If you want some ānanda from sense, for the time being it may give you some pleasure, but at once it decreases. You have no more capacity to enjoy. You see? At once decreases. So it is not ānanda. It is not real ānanda. Ānanda means that will increase, increase. You enjoy and increases. Increases. Ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam. The example is very nice. Ambudhi. Ambudhi means sea. Sea... You don't find sea has increased. You go to the, what is called, seaside. Ten years before you had been to the seaside. You see the same level is there. It does not increase. If it increases, the whole New York City will be overflooded. It does not increase. But here Lord Caitanya says that ambudhi, the ocean of bliss, it increases. It increases. That is a new experience. When you are actually in spiritual happiness, your bliss will be increased.
We want to enjoy sex life. There is some taste. So that is called ādi—taste. So there are so many tastes. There in the Brahma-saṁhitā, ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. That taste, material taste, you may taste it, but it will be finished immediately. Immediately finished. Say few minutes. Suppose you have got very nice sweetmeat. You taste it. You get, "Oh, it is very nice." "Take another." "All right." "And another?" "No, I don't want," finished. You see? So material taste is finishable. It is not unlimited. But real taste is unlimited. If you taste one then you cannot forget. It will go on, increasing, increasing. Ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that, "This taste is simply increasing." Although it is ocean-like, great, still it is increasing. Here you have seen ocean. It is limited. Your Pacific Ocean is tossing, but it is not increasing. If it increases there is havoc, you see? But by nature's law, by God's order, it does not come beyond its limit. Within the limit it is. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu says there is an ocean of bliss, ocean of taste, of transcendental bliss, which is increasing. Ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ prati-padaṁ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaṁ sarvātma-snapanaṁ paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. You'll get by this chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, your pleasure potency increasing more and more, more and more.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
But we have got practical experience that if somebody from very exalted post becomes a renouncer, he cannot tolerate that. We have seen it. In Calcutta there was a big man. You have heard. Mr. C. R. Das, Gandhi's lieutenant, he gave up his practice. In those days he was..., fifty years ago he was earning fifty thousand rupees. So that is not joke. So he became mendicant. All Gandhi's followers, they became mendicant. Without becoming mendicant, you cannot do any welfare activities. That is the Vedic process, sannyāsa. So but he could not live. After giving up his job as a lawyer, he could not live for more than one year, because he was living very opulently and all of a sudden he became a mendicant. He could not tolerate. That we have seen. But here we see that the Gosvāmīs, they were also very big men, ministers, but how they lived? Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tuccha-vat bhūtvā dīna-gaṇeśakau karuṇayā kaupīna-kanthāśritau, gopī-bhāva-rasāmṛtābdhi-laharī. Gopī-bhāva. They were living simply by thinking of the ecstatic love of gopīs. Gopī-bhāvāmṛta. That is compared with an ocean. As the ocean is beautiful, constant flowing of waves, similarly, the ocean of bliss of the gopīs relationship with Kṛṣṇa, these Gosvāmīs were always absorbed in that. Gopī-bhāva-rasāmṛtābdhi-laharī-kallola-magnau muhur vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau. So Kṛṣṇa's opulence, Kṛṣṇa's dealings with the gopīs, they are not ordinary things.
Prahlāda Mahārāja says. Tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ: "Because my heart is always merged into the ocean of Your glorification, I have no problem." This is the devotee. Everyone goes to God to mitigate some problem, that "God, give us our daily bread." That means bread is a problem, and... That is the general tendency. They go to temple, church, to mitigate some problem. And as soon as the problem is finished, they forget God. No more church, no more temple. You see? That is not devotion. Devotion is that "No problem. I am ready to serve You, my Lord." That is life. No problem. We should not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness or saṅkīrtana to solve some problem. No. That is not pure devotion. When you will feel that "There is no problem. I am chanting, glorifying. So I am becoming merged into the ocean of bliss," that is life. That is the symptom.
So this is spiritual varieties. Material varieties cannot give us full satisfaction. Therefore you want change. Change, another change, another change. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30). Here in the material world we are simply chewing the chewed. Once chewed and thrown it away, again somebody is coming chewing. So spiritual variety is not like that. Spiritual varieties is ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam. The more you are attached to spiritual variety, it is just like ocean. An ocean does not increase, but spiritual varieties are said they are increasing. Now just like here you have got the Arabian Sea. It is not increasing. It would have increased, then Bombay town would have been finished long ago. So it is not increasing. It has got a certain limit. You go to the beach you see no, no more than. But it is compared with ānandāmbudhi, the ocean of bliss, increasing, vardhanam. Ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam. The more you enter into the spiritual bliss, the more you become joyful. That is spiritual. Spiritual, just like these boys, these girls they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Had it been hackneyed, how long they would have chanted? No. That is not possible. Unless it is spiritual, nobody can be satisfied simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa. You take any other word, "Mr. John, Mr. John, Mr. John," how long you will chant? After chanting for half an hour you will be fed up. But this is ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam.
And so far knowledge is concerned, you will get it automatically. You will get all knowledge. Our material conditional life is simply due to ignorance, and when you come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the full moonlight of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all knowledge, will be at your feet. Everything you will know. Vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam. And ānandāmbudhi-vaṛdhanaṁ: then you increase the ocean of transcendental bliss. The ocean. The ocean never increases, but the transcendental ocean of bliss increasing daily, daily, and you enjoy it. Ānandāmbudhi-vaṛdhanaṁ sarvātma-snapanaṁ. Sarvātma-snapanaṁ. Just like when you take your shower bath or a dip into the ocean, you feel fully comfortable, similarly, by taking your dip into the ocean of bliss of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you will feel fully refreshed, fully refreshed, without any doubt. Paraṁ vijayate śri-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. Therefore Lord Caitanya gives, "All glories to the saṅkīrtana movement, Hare Kṛṣṇa."
Initiation Lectures
So Kṛṣṇa is very kind. He has given you hundreds and thousands of palatable dishes, remnants of foodstuff eaten by Him. You eat. In this way, if you simply make it a determination that "I shall not allow my tongue to taste anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa, and I shall engage my tongue always chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa," then all perfection is within your hold. All perfection. Two simple things: Don't eat anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa. That's all. Our Kṛṣṇa prasādam are so variegated, nice varieties... The variety is the mother of enjoyment. How much enjoyment you want with your tongue? You can have simply by eating Kṛṣṇa prasādam. And the more your tongue is purified, the more you relish the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Relish. Ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam. It is stated by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu that it increases the ocean of bliss, transcendental bliss. Ocean does not increase. We have no experience within this material world. If ocean would have increased, then all the lands would have been swallowed up many long, long years ago. Ocean does not increase. But this ocean, transcendental bliss, is increasing. Some of you must have experienced, those who are actually relishing. The authorities like Rūpa Gosvāmī, he says that "What I shall chant with one tongue? If I would have millions of tongues, then I could chant a little more. And what I shall hear with two ears?" So he's expecting, he's aspiring to have millions of ears and trillions of tongues to relish this chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. So that is another stage, of course, when this chanting will be so melodious that we shall try to have more ears and more tongues to utilize it.
General Lectures
So in those days, a scholarly section, learned section, rich section were attracted by Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement. And what was their business? This business, as you are doing: kṛṣṇa kīrtana-gāna-nartana-parau. Their engagement was kṛṣṇa ut kīrtanam. Kṛṣṇa kīrtanam, singing about Kṛṣṇa, just like you are doing—Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇot-kīrtana, very loudly chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇot-kīrtana-gāna, and sometimes prayers, songs. Nartana. Naratana means dancing. These were their engagement: kṛṣṇot-kīrtana-gāna-nartana-parau premāmṛtāmbho-nidhī. And as soon as they chanted, immediately they were immersed in the ocean of bliss, prema, ecstasy of love of God, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇot-kīrtana-gāna-nartana-parau premāmṛtāmbho-nidhī dhīrādhīra-jana-priyau. They were very much affectionate, or dear, to all classes of people.
Correspondence
1969 Correspondence
It is all your credit that as soon as you arrived in Germany you have done some tangible service to the mission. May Krishna bless you more and more. And as you wish that this service may continue throughout all your life and the next, so it gives me more pleasure about your sincerity of service. I am also glad to know that sometimes the happiness you feel is very strong. There is some words spoken by Lord Caitanya that this service is a transcendental ocean of bliss. Ananda ambudhi bardanam. Here we have got experience of the material ocean; it does not increase. On the other hand, gradually it is decreasing. Formerly the whole planet was merged into water, and there was no earth; it ws simply inundated water. Now gradually the ocean is drying up, and the land is coming out. Therefore, this material ocean is decreasing, but the transcendental ocean of bliss is only increasing. So I can only say that you stick to your present nice service, entrusted upon you by my Guru Maharaja and Krishna. Try to improve it to your best capacity.
Please continue to read the literature very attentively. Try to understand very soberly and you will feel ecstasy undoubtedly. The more we understand the spiritual literatures the more we become engladdened. Lord Caitanya has written ananda ambhudhi bardhanam. This means the ocean of bliss is always increasing. So continue to execute your duties with enthusiasm and patience, and I am certain Krishna will be pleased make you successful on all accounts. I hope this will meet you in good health.
| Page Title: | Ocean of bliss |
| Compiler: | Laksmipriya, Visnu Murti |
| Created: | 28 of Nov, 2008 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=3, CC=0, OB=2, Lec=9, Con=0, Let=2 |
| No. of Quotes: | 16 |