105. Eternal Happiness

Krishna says that those established in Brahma (absolute), having a firm understanding of divine knowledge and not hampered by delusion, neither rejoice on getting something pleasant nor grieve on experiencing the unpleasant (5.20). We have the habit of labelling situations and people as pleasant or unpleasant. In essence, it’s about dropping such labelling (2.50).

Krishna repeatedly tells Arjuna to come out of the moha (delusion) which arises out of mistaken sense of ownership of what is ours and what is not. The greatest delusion is the belief that we can attain happiness through our senses. On the other hand, Krishna offers a solution for unending happiness when he says that those who are not attached to external sense pleasures realise divine bliss in the self. Being united with God through yoga, they experience unending happiness (5.21).

Krishna cautions that the pleasures arising from contact with the sense-objects, though seemingly enjoyable to worldly-minded people, are verily a source of misery. O son of Kunti, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, so the wise do not delight in them (5.22).

This is the continuation of what Krishna said at the very beginning of the Gita, “The meeting of the indriyas (senses) with the external objects causes polarities of pleasure and pain and we should learn to tolerate them, as they are ‘anitya’ or transient” (2.14).  This implies that in due course of time, both pleasure and pain would invariably come to an end. It’s our experience that we feel pain when pleasures go away. Conversely, we feel pleasure when pain ends. To numb these, we resort to a temporary measure of regurgitating the pleasure moments. But the essence is to be aware of the impermanence of pleasures as well as pains while we go through them. Krishna says that when we maintain a balance during the onslaught of the polarities of pleasure and pain, we are eligible for the amrit (moksha) (2.15).