BLISS
Bliss is an experience which is indefinable, like love. There are certain inferences which could tell us about Bliss but not what Bliss really is. The same things happen in universities, where they would tell you all about something but not really what something is.
That is the difficulty one has in trying to define a quality that stems from so deep within oneself. We have all experienced joys, we have all experienced pleasures, and yet it is so difficult to define what joy is or what pleasure is. We can say, “Oh, pleasure is such a pleasant feeling,” and there it ends. Or you could say, “I feel joyful,” and the person would understand what you mean because that person to has experienced joy.
When you describe to a person that you feel joyful, that person will know what you are talking about because that person has, to some measure, experienced joy. When you tell a person that you have a toothache, that person will immediately know what your toothache is if he has experienced a toothache himself.
Bliss is a quality that very few people have experienced in the existence of this world. The description of Bliss could not be verbalised, and even if it could be verbalised, it could never be understood.
To describe Bliss would be synonymous with describing God. Yet to infer to Bliss one could say that a feeling wells up within oneself, a feeling that becomes so universal that you could embrace the entire universe within yourself, that you become identified with everything and everybody.
Bliss contains so much joy that you feel the pain of others, and you feel the pleasures of others. Bliss contains all the elements whereby the pain of others could be uplifted because you radiate the quality of Bliss. When you radiate this quality of Bliss which you experience, then the entire atmosphere is enlightened.
A self-realised man could never explain to you what self-realisation is. He can tell you that self-realisation, which also is synonymous with Bliss, and self-realisation, as we know, is God-realization. Being synonymous, it defies all description, yet it is experienceable.
When a person experiences Bliss, and he cannot describe it, then what purpose does that Bliss serve? It would be very selfish for a person to experience Bliss and not being able to share it. So, the blissful person, even without trying to share it, automatically shares it, because one of the expressions of Bliss is a love that is generated. All of you on this course have experienced some of it. It can so clearly be seen on every face here.
The Bliss which I experience I cannot explain to you in words. It would be like explaining God. Once you can explain any object, you are limiting the object, while Bliss is an experience which is limitless. And if it is limitless, then the experiencer of Bliss emanates it to the furthest extent of the universe.
Those that are close to the experience of Bliss naturally feel it. They may not understand it because it defies all mental analysis, but something happens in the physical, mental and spiritual chemistry. Something just lights up. So, Bliss, though inexplicable, is definitely sharable.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 1977 – 10