Spiritual bliss (CC and other books)

Expressions researched:
"spiritual bliss"

CC Adi-lila

The conception of comfortable life in heaven is insignificant in comparison to the happiness enjoyed in the impersonal Brahman, and this brahmānanda, the spiritual bliss derived from impersonal Brahman, is like the water in the hoofprint of a calf compared to the ocean of love of Godhead.

CC Adi 1.56, Purport:

There are different grades and standards of prosperity. The standard of comfort and happiness conceived by a common man engaged in material labor is the lowest grade of happiness, for it is in relationship with the body. The highest standard of such bodily comfort is achieved by a fruitive worker who by pious activities reaches the plane of heaven, or the kingdom of the creative gods with their delegated powers. But the conception of comfortable life in heaven is insignificant in comparison to the happiness enjoyed in the impersonal Brahman, and this brahmānanda, the spiritual bliss derived from impersonal Brahman, is like the water in the hoofprint of a calf compared to the ocean of love of Godhead. When one develops pure love for the Lord, he derives an ocean of transcendental happiness from the association of the Personality of Godhead. To qualify oneself to reach this stage of life is the highest perfection.

Ignorant persons cannot understand the distinction between impersonal spiritual bliss and the variegatedness of the spiritual pleasure potency.

CC Adi 4.60, Purport:

Hlādinī is the personal manifestation of the blissfulness of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by which He enjoys pleasure. Because the pleasure potency is perpetually present in the Supreme Lord, the theory of the impersonalist that the Lord appears in the material mode of goodness cannot be accepted. The impersonalist conclusion is against the Vedic version that the Lord possesses a transcendental pleasure potency. When the pleasure potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is exhibited by His grace in the person of a devotee, that manifestation is called love of God. "Love of God" is an epithet for the pleasure potency of the Lord. Therefore devotional service reciprocated between the Lord and His devotee is an exhibition of the transcendental pleasure potency of the Lord. The potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that always enriches Him with transcendental bliss is not material, but the Śaṅkarites have accepted it as such because they are ignorant of the identity of the Supreme Lord and His pleasure potency. Those ignorant persons cannot understand the distinction between impersonal spiritual bliss and the variegatedness of the spiritual pleasure potency. The hlādinī potency gives the Lord all transcendental pleasure, and the Lord bestows such a potency upon His pure devotee.

He is the personified spiritual bliss of sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha.

CC Adi 7.6, Purport:

Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu is the immediate expansion of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu as His brother. He is the personified spiritual bliss of sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1). His body is transcendental and full of ecstasy in devotional service. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is therefore called bhakta-rūpa (the form of a devotee), and Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu is called bhakta-svarūpa (the expansion of a devotee). Śrī Advaita Prabhu, the incarnation of a devotee, is viṣṇu-tattva and belongs to the same category. There are also different types of bhaktas, or devotees, on the platforms of neutrality, servitude, friendship, parenthood and conjugal love. Devotees like Śrī Dāmodara, Śrī Gadādhara and Śrī Rāmānanda are different energies. This confirms the Vedic sūtra parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). All these bhakta subjects taken together constitute Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is Kṛṣṇa Himself.

Those who are addicted to fruitive activities and speculative knowledge cannot understand the value of the holy name of Lord Kṛṣṇa, which is always completely pure, eternally liberated and full of spiritual bliss.

CC Adi 7.72, Purport:

One who imperfectly knows Kṛṣṇa consciousness cannot know Vedānta philosophy. A showy display of Vedānta study without Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a feature of the external energy, māyā, and as long as one is attracted by the inebrieties of this ever-changing material energy, he deviates from devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. An actual follower of Vedānta philosophy is a devotee of Lord Viṣṇu, who is the greatest of the great and the maintainer of the entire universe. Unless one surpasses the field of activities in service to the limited, one cannot reach the unlimited. Knowledge of the unlimited is actual brahma-jñāna, or knowledge of the Supreme. Those who are addicted to fruitive activities and speculative knowledge cannot understand the value of the holy name of Lord Kṛṣṇa, which is always completely pure, eternally liberated and full of spiritual bliss. One who has taken shelter of the holy name of the Lord, which is identical with the Lord, does not have to study Vedānta philosophy, for he has already completed all such study.

Lord Kṛṣṇa first appeared in the mind of Ānakadundubhi, Vasudeva, and was then transferred to the mind of Devakī-devī. Thus the spiritual bliss in the mind of Devakī-devī gradually increased, just as the moon increases every night until it becomes a full moon.

CC Adi 13.86, Purport:

The incarnation of the Lord entered the mind of Vasudeva and was then transferred to the mind of Devakī. Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī gives the following annotation in this connection: "mana āviveśa" manasy āvirbabhūva; jīvānām iva na dhātu-sambandha ity arthaḥ. There was no question of the seminal discharge necessary for the birth of an ordinary human being. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī also comments in this connection that Lord Kṛṣṇa first appeared in the mind of Ānakadundubhi, Vasudeva, and was then transferred to the mind of Devakī-devī. Thus the spiritual bliss in the mind of Devakī-devī gradually increased, just as the moon increases every night until it becomes a full moon. At the time of His appearance, Lord Kṛṣṇa came out of the mind of Devakī and appeared within the prison house of Kaṁsa, by the side of Devakī’s bed. At that time, by the spell of yogamāyā, Devakī thought that her child had now been born. In this connection, even the demigods from the celestial kingdom were also bewildered.

One who considers the lotus feet of Raghunātha dāsa to be transcendental to all divisions of the caste system enjoys the riches of actual spiritual bliss.

CC Adi 13.124, Purport:

Sometimes smārtas consider Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī a śūdra. But Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī here especially mentions svarūpa-rūpa-raghunāthadāsa. Therefore one who considers the lotus feet of Raghunātha dāsa to be transcendental to all divisions of the caste system enjoys the riches of actual spiritual bliss.

CC Madhya-lila

The planet Goloka Vṛndāvana is self-luminous like the sun and is full of spiritual bliss.

CC Madhya 8.138, Purport:

The spiritual realm of Vṛndāvana is always spiritual. The goddess of fortune and the gopīs are always present there. They are Kṛṣṇa's beloveds, and all of them are as spiritual as Kṛṣṇa. In Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Person and is the husband of all the gopīs and the goddess of fortune. The trees in Vṛndāvana are wish-fulfilling trees. The land is made of touchstone, and the water is nectar. Words are musical vibrations, and all movements are dancing. The flute is the Lord's constant companion. The planet Goloka Vṛndāvana is self-luminous like the sun and is full of spiritual bliss. The perfection of life lies in tasting that spiritual existence; therefore everyone should cultivate its knowledge. In Vṛndāvana, spiritual cows are always supplying spiritual milk. Not a single moment is wasted there—in other words, there is no past, present or future. Not a single particle of time is wasted. Within this material universe, the devotees worship that transcendental abode as Goloka Vṛndāvana. Lord Brahmā himself said, "Let me worship that spiritual land where Kṛṣṇa is present." This transcendental Vṛndāvana is not appreciated by those who are not devotees or self-realized souls because this Vṛndāvana-dhāma is all spiritual.

You have come to taste Your own spiritual bliss.

CC Madhya 8.280, Translation:

“My dear Lord, You have descended in this incarnation of Lord Caitanya for Your own personal reasons. You have come to taste Your own spiritual bliss, and at the same time You are transforming the whole world by spreading the ecstasy of love of Godhead.

In the form of Kṛṣṇa, the Lord enjoys spiritual bliss and remains the shelter of all devotees, viṣaya-vigraha. And in His Gaurāṅga feature Kṛṣṇa tastes separation from Kṛṣṇa in the ecstasy of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.

CC Madhya 8.288, Purport:

Gaurasundara here informed Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya, "My dear Rāmānanda Rāya, you were actually seeing a separate person with a fair-complexioned body. Actually I am not fair. Being Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the son of Nanda Mahārāja, I am blackish, but when I come in touch with Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī I become fair-complexioned externally. Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī does not touch the body of anyone but Kṛṣṇa. I taste My own transcendental features by accepting the complexion of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Without Rādhārāṇī, one cannot taste the transcendental pleasure of Kṛṣṇa's conjugal love." In this regard, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura comments on the prākṛta-sahajiyā-sampradāya, which considers Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya to possess different bodies. They misinterpret the words gaura aṅga nahe mora in text 287. From that verse and the present verse we can understand that Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa. Both are the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the form of Kṛṣṇa, the Lord enjoys spiritual bliss and remains the shelter of all devotees, viṣaya-vigraha. And in His Gaurāṅga feature Kṛṣṇa tastes separation from Kṛṣṇa in the ecstasy of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. This ecstatic form is Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya.

The goal of devotional service is to be eternally situated in the loving service of the Lord and to enjoy spiritual bliss from that service.

CC Madhya 20.142, Purport:

The results of devotional service are certainly not material benefits or liberation from material bondage. The goal of devotional service is to be eternally situated in the loving service of the Lord and to enjoy spiritual bliss from that service. One is said to be in a poverty-stricken condition when one forgets the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One has to end such a life of poverty in order to automatically end the miserable conditions of material existence. One is automatically liberated from material enjoyment when one tastes the service of Kṛṣṇa. One does not have to endeavor separately for opulence. Opulence automatically comes to the pure devotee, even though he does not desire material happiness.

His whole body is composed of spiritual bliss.

CC Madhya 20.153, Translation:

“Kṛṣṇa is the original source of everything and the sum total of everything. He appears as the supreme youth, and His whole body is composed of spiritual bliss. He is the shelter of everything and master of everyone.

Each Vaikuṇṭha planet is very large, and each is made of spiritual bliss.

CC Madhya 21.5, Translation:

“Each Vaikuṇṭha planet is very large, and each is made of spiritual bliss. The inhabitants are all associates of the Supreme Lord, and they have full opulence like the Lord Himself. This is how the Vaikuṇṭha planets are all situated.

Each Vaikuṇṭha planet is full of spiritual bliss, complete opulence and space.

CC Madhya 21.8, Translation:

“Each Vaikuṇṭha planet is full of spiritual bliss, complete opulence and space, and each is inhabited by incarnations. If Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva cannot estimate the length and breadth of the spiritual sky and the Vaikuṇṭha planets, how can ordinary living entities begin to imagine them?

Understanding this with his mind, he enjoys spiritual bliss.

CC Madhya 22.101, Translation:

“"One whose body is fully surrendered takes shelter at the holy place where Kṛṣṇa had His pastimes, and he prays to the Lord, "My Lord, I am Yours." Understanding this with his mind, he enjoys spiritual bliss."

In this way he becomes fit to enjoy the spiritual bliss derived from exchanging loving mellows with Me.

CC Madhya 22.103, Translation:

“"The living entity who is subjected to birth and death attains immortality when he gives up all material activities, dedicates his life to the execution of My order, and acts according to My directions. In this way he becomes fit to enjoy the spiritual bliss derived from exchanging loving mellows with Me."

I am being attracted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, who is personified spiritual bliss.

CC Madhya 24.128, Translation:

“"In this Dvārakā-dhāma, I am being attracted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, who is personified spiritual bliss. Simply by seeing Him, I am feeling great happiness. Oh, I have wasted so much time trying to become self-realized through impersonal cultivation. This is a cause for lamentation!"

Thus one is subjected to spiritual bliss.

CC Madhya 24.157, Translation:

“"When one is in ecstatic love with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one"s heart is melted by bhakti-yoga and one feels transcendental bliss. There are bodily symptoms manifest, and due to eagerness, there are tears in the eyes. Thus one is subjected to spiritual bliss. When the heart is overly afflicted, the meditative mind, like a fishing hook, is gradually separated from the object of meditation.’

CC Antya-lila

The body of a devotee is never material. It is considered to be transcendental, full of spiritual bliss.

CC Antya 4.191, Translation and Purport:

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “The body of a devotee is never material. It is considered to be transcendental, full of spiritual bliss.

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is trying to convince Haridāsa Ṭhākura and Sanātana Gosvāmī that a devotee whose life is dedicated to the service of the Lord is never in the material conception. Because he always engages in the service of the Lord, his body is transcendental and full of spiritual bliss. One should never consider his body material, just as one should never consider the body of the Deity worshiped in the temple to be made of stone or wood.

In this way he becomes fit to enjoy the spiritual bliss derived from exchanging loving mellows with Me.

CC Antya 4.194, Translation:

“"The living entity who is subjected to birth and death attains immortality when he gives up all material activities, dedicates his life to the execution of My order, and acts according to My directions. In this way he becomes fit to enjoy the spiritual bliss derived from exchanging loving mellows with Me."

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Living beings can also enjoy spiritual bliss, eternal life and full knowledge in His association.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 5:

The Supreme Lord is as much an individual as other living beings, but He is different in that He is the Supreme and all other living beings are subordinate to Him. All other living beings can also enjoy spiritual bliss, eternal life and full knowledge in His association.

Nectar of Devotion

Everyone should try to find such a bona fide spiritual master in order to fulfill his mission of life, which is to transfer himself to the plane of spiritual bliss.

Nectar of Devotion 7:

Any person who is seriously desirous of achieving real happiness must seek out a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of a spiritual master is that he must have realized the conclusion of the scriptures by deliberation and arguments and thus be able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, are to be understood as bona fide spiritual masters. Everyone should try to find such a bona fide spiritual master in order to fulfill his mission of life, which is to transfer himself to the plane of spiritual bliss.

They are allowed to enter into the spiritual planets to enjoy spiritual bliss in association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Nectar of Devotion 15:

The enemies and the impersonalists may be allowed to enter into this Brahman effulgence, but the devotees of Kṛṣṇa are promoted all the way to the spiritual planets. Because the pure devotees have developed their spontaneous love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they are allowed to enter into the spiritual planets to enjoy spiritual bliss in association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

The falldown of Saubhari Muni, who was supposed to be absorbed in spiritual bliss by meditation, is an instruction to the offender of Vaiṣṇavas.

Krsna Book 17:

Actually the cursing of Garuḍa—who is stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to be of the stature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavān—was an offense on the part of Saubhari Muni. Although Garuḍa did not try to retaliate, the Muni was not saved from his offensive act against a great Vaiṣṇava personality. Due to this offense, Saubhari fell down from his yogic position and afterwards became a householder, a sense enjoyer in the material world. The falldown of Saubhari Muni, who was supposed to be absorbed in spiritual bliss by meditation, is an instruction to the offender of Vaiṣṇavas.

By accepting austerity in devotional service, one regains his spiritual life, and as soon as one regains his spiritual life, he enjoys unlimited spiritual bliss.

Krsna Book 20:

The flourishing condition of the earth after the rainy season is compared to the fulfillment of material desires. Sometimes, when a country is subjugated by an undesirable government, persons and parties undergo severe penances and austerities to get control of the government, and when they attain control, they flourish by giving themselves generous salaries. This temporary profit is like the flourishing of the earth in the rainy season. Actually, one should undergo severe austerities and penances only to achieve spiritual happiness. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is recommended that tapasya, or austerity, should be accepted for realizing the Supreme Lord. By accepting austerity in devotional service, one regains his spiritual life, and as soon as one regains his spiritual life, he enjoys unlimited spiritual bliss. But if someone undertakes austerities and penances for some material gain, it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that the results are temporary and that they are desired by persons of less intelligence.

One is immediately blessed with all spiritual bliss.

Krsna Book 58:

Kṛṣṇa is called Mukunda because as soon as one comes in constant touch with Kṛṣṇa or sees Him in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one immediately becomes freed from all material anxieties. Not only that, but one is immediately blessed with all spiritual bliss.

By the touch of the Supreme Personality of Godhead the Pāṇḍavas immediately became freed from all reactions of material contamination and were therefore smiling in spiritual bliss.

Krsna Book 58:

Receiving Kṛṣṇa, the Pāṇḍavas were enlivened, just as if awakened from unconsciousness or loss of life. When a man is lying unconscious, his senses and the different parts of his body are inactive, but when he regains his consciousness the senses immediately become active. Similarly, the Pāṇḍavas received Kṛṣṇa as if they had just regained their consciousness, and so they were very much enlivened. Lord Kṛṣṇa embraced every one of them, and by the touch of the Supreme Personality of Godhead the Pāṇḍavas immediately became freed from all reactions of material contamination and were therefore smiling in spiritual bliss.

Those who have tasted the nectar of devotion by relishing the transcendental vibration of chanting Your glories—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—do not care for any other spiritual bliss or for material comforts, which appear to the pure devotee as less important than the straw in the street.

Krsna Book 87:

The most intelligent devotees, therefore, do not take to any means of self-realization except devotional service and constant engagement in the nine different processes of devotional life, especially hearing and chanting. When hearing and chanting about Your transcendental pastimes, Your devotees do not care even for the transcendental bliss derived from liberation or from merging into the existence of the Supreme. Such devotees are not interested even in so-called liberation, and they certainly have no interest in material activities for elevation to the heavenly planets for sense gratification. Pure devotees seek only the association of paramahaṁsas, or great liberated devotees, so that they can continuously hear and chant about Your glories. For this purpose the pure devotees are prepared to sacrifice all comforts of life, even giving up the material comforts of family life and so-called society, friendship and love. Those who have tasted the nectar of devotion by relishing the transcendental vibration of chanting Your glories—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—do not care for any other spiritual bliss or for material comforts, which appear to the pure devotee as less important than the straw in the street.

The wives of the Lord would feel on their mouths a clear indication of conjugal love, and this would create an atmosphere of spiritual bliss.

Krsna Book 90:

Upon being embraced, the wives of the Lord would feel on their mouths a clear indication of conjugal love, and this would create an atmosphere of spiritual bliss. When the garland on the neck of the Lord then touched the breasts of the queens, their whole bodies became covered with saffron yellow. Being engaged in their celestial pastimes, the queens forgot themselves, and their loosened hair appeared like beautiful waves of a river. When the queens sprinkled water on the body of Kṛṣṇa or He sprinkled water on the bodies of the queens, the whole situation appeared just like that of an elephant enjoying in a lake with many she-elephants.

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Perfection in yoga, therefore, is marked by the awakening of spiritual bliss.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1:

Great thinkers and philosophers like Śrī Aurobindo describe this stage as vijṇānānanda, "the pure bliss of realized knowledge." Jesus Christ called it "the kingdom of heaven." By contrast, when one tries to enjoy mundane pleasures on the material plane, spiritual bliss becomes smothered and lies dormant, in a slumbering state. Perfection in yoga, therefore, is marked by the awakening of spiritual bliss. And when one is strongly drawn to this blissful state, one attains to the transcendental abode of the Supreme Lord. Iron in constant touch with fire develops the properties of fire. Similarly, when the jīva in the material nature rises to the state of spiritual bliss by means of devotional service, his spiritual consciousness awakens and he becomes oblivious of this phenomenal world.

We experience incessant spiritual bliss in rendering Him loving service.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is unlimited, and any service rendered Him is also unlimited because the Lord's unlimited energy is the dynamic force behind such service. When this supernatural energy is reposed in us, all our thoughts and feelings, our physical body, our mind, our knowledge, and so on, are energized by it. Every endeavor then simply merges into this flow of energy, and we become like a lotus growing from the mud—in the world but uncontaminted by it. This is how the nondual principle comes alive: our mind, heart, consciousness, and activities become nondifferent from the Supreme Lord, the Absolute Truth. We consider ourselves the Lord's property, surrendered at His lotus feet, His unalloyed, eternal slaves. Rejecting all mental speculation and mundane desire, with a serene mind we experience incessant spiritual bliss in rendering Him loving service.

Mukunda-mala-stotra (mantras 1 to 6 only)

Full spiritual bliss comes upon us, ushering in full knowledge, full life, and full satisfaction with our whole existence.

Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 1, Purport:

King Kulaśekhara next addresses the Lord as Varada, "the bestower of benedictions," because it is He alone who can deliver to us the actual substance—spiritual bliss. When we detach ourselves from His association, we are always in the midst of want and scarcity, but as soon as we get in touch with Him, our gradual endowment with all bliss begins. The first installment of this bliss is the clearance of the layer of dust that has accumulated in our hearts due to millions of years of material association. As soon as the dust of materialism is brushed aside, the clear mirror of the heart reflects the presence of the Lord. And as soon as we see Him we are automatically freed from all kinds of aspirations and frustrations. In that liberated state, everything is blissful in relation with the Lord, and one has no desires to fulfill and nothing to lament over. Thus, following the benediction, full spiritual bliss comes upon us, ushering in full knowledge, full life, and full satisfaction with our whole existence.

He fully understands the statement in the Bhagavad-gītā that from the lowest planets up to Brahmaloka, the highest planet in the universe, there is no spiritual bliss, which the living beings hanker for. Therefore the pure devotee, being in full knowledge of spiritual life, simultaneously rejects material relationships and cultivates his spiritual relationship with the Lord.

Mukunda-mala-stotra mantra 6, Purport:

By contrast, a pure devotee like King Kulaśekhara has complete knowledge of both matter and spirit. He does not say that everything material is false, yet he has nothing to do with anything material, from heaven down to hell. He fully understands the statement in the Bhagavad-gītā that from the lowest planets up to Brahmaloka, the highest planet in the universe, there is no spiritual bliss, which the living beings hanker for. Therefore the pure devotee, being in full knowledge of spiritual life, simultaneously rejects material relationships and cultivates his spiritual relationship with the Lord. In other words, the spiritual knowledge a devotee possesses not only allows him to reject material existence, but it also provides him with an understanding of the reality of positive, eternal spiritual existence. This is the understanding King Kulaśekhara expresses in this prayer.