Life is Bliss, Consciousness, Joy

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I get so much from reading in Aurobindo, the great and recent Indian sage. He reminds us that life is “bliss being, and consciousness,” the “Sat-Chit-Ananda” of Eastern philosophy. But how to translate that from “Being, Consciousness and Joy?”

I learned, in reading his “Life Divine,” that life is everywhere. And why not? God created Life. God is Life. But it is shown in the fact that the basis of Life, the proof of it, if you will, lies in the fact that reactivity is the meaning and essence of Life. On that basis, the atom is alive and reactive. Protons and electrons relate to each other by attraction. This is not only life but the basis of love. And electrons repel. This would be akin to the opposite of desire and love — fear, hatred and aggression.

Furthermore, the atom knows its place in the world and suits itself in harmony by joining with others in an intelligent plan, to make the constituent and proper molecule. Two atoms of hydrogen find one of oxygen and make water; hydrogen and sulfur and oxygen join to form sulfuric acid; carbon atoms unite in a chain to form strands that are the basis of DNA. And so it goes — on and on, up the scale.

Life is an evolving something. Therefore if the atom has life in its reactivity and relationship to an intelligent plan, so does the mineral and metal that evolves from the atoms. This becomes even more so up the scale of life, as life becomes crystal (crystals grow) and life becomes animal in the form of a one-celled creature. And on up into plants and lower animals, and animals that have desire and a degree of will, and then higher animals, almost humanoid. And life bursts forth into expression as the human, who can not only exercise desire and will, but can acquire will and a control of desire. And then there is a reaching toward a yet higher form of life, extending into a higher being — and then aspiring to become a super-being — and a yet higher and higher someone, closer always to the All-Being, the God-Being, the Highest of Whom we are a part, and can become a joined part — again and again and again.

And so life is an expression of God. Life is inherent in all of God’s creations. Life is the reactivity of the atom and the “growing up,” evolving expression of itself in ever increasing degrees of complexity and development.

Life is Sat (Being) of the Indian phrase “Sat-Chit-Ananda.” And parallel to this there is Consciousness (Chit).

Consciousness is present in the atom, for the atom not only knows its place but its internal constituents, the electrons and proton know where to go. And so on up the scale in terms of creating in its intelligent organization an expression always of a Higher Intelligence. Molecules become cells within organisms, and evolve into higher and higher entities. The expression of Consciousness goes on up the scale from metal to plant to animal to human to high human and on further. And we aspire, in our self-reflective consciousness, our desire consciousness, our soul consciousness — to know and to reach and to join with the higher and higher nearness to the All.

And the “Joy-Bliss-Ananda”:

Ananda is inherent in everything. It is a puzzling something, for we see so much in the way of pain, suffering, death, cruelty. But we also see, everywhere, a clinging to life as if it were to know an underlying joy that exists and that will return. Even the Holocaust victims were willing to endure, holding on and holding on to the Ananda of life and its expression of hope for something better. And we see the Ananda of love, which existed even in the German concentration camp, where, in the midst of the ultimate trials, symphony orchestras were formed and people gave a portion of their bread to another. Behind all this suffering and pain there is always some kind of exquisite love or joy or joining.

It is a difficult concept — but if we look, if we get into the endurance of pain, if we transcend into the depths of meditation, we find a peacefulness, and a desire to remain. It is something akin to the joy and bliss of being asleep, of clinging to sleep in the morning. It is something akin to the accumulated joy of sexual union — or to the post-orgasmic calm, the sea of calm, the endlessness and quietude of calm.

And so we see, we learn to expand as we realize God is Life, God is Bliss, God is Consciousness, God is All.

Maurie D. Pressman, M.D.
200 Locust St.
Philadelphia, Pa. 19106
Tel: 215-922-0204
Fax: 215-922-3008
email: mauriedavid@earthlink.net
web: www.mauriepressman.com

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Maurie D. Pressman, M.D. is the author of Enter the Supermind, Visions From the Soul and co-author (with Patricia Joudry) of Twin Souls: A Guide to Finding Your True Spiritual Partner. Dr. Pressman is Emeritus Chairman of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Temple University Health Sciences Center. He is Medical Director at the Center for Psychiatric Wellness, clinics that operate in Philadelphia and Haddonfield, N.J. These clinics bridge traditional and spiritual psychotherapy. Dr. Pressman can be reached at 200 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106; telephone: 215/922-0204; fax: 215/922-3008; email: mauriedavid@earthlink.net; website: www.mauriepressman.com.

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