The Psychic Being Is of the Essence of Ananda, the Delight-Soul of the Universe

"... this that is well and beautifully made, verily it is no other than the delight behind existence. When he hath gotten him this delight, then it is that this creature becometh a thing of bliss; for who could labour to draw in the breath or who could have strength to breathe it out, if there were not that Bliss in the heaven of his heart, the ether within his being? It is He that is the fountain of bliss; for when the Spirit that is within us findeth his refuge and firm foundation in the Invisible, Bodiless, Undefinable and Unhoused Eternal, then he hath passed beyond the reach of Fear." [translation by Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads, Taittiriya Upanishad, Brahmanandavalli, chapter 7]

The Upanishad goes further to set forth a method of realisation which systematically moves the seeker from the awareness of the body, to the life-force, to the mind, to the reason and finally to the Ananda, the sheath that is of the essence of bliss. As the seeker moves from the gross external awareness to the ever-more-subtle ranges of awareness, he eventually comes into contact with the underlying stratum that is Sat-Chit-Ananda, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, the underlying and permeating and constituting Reality of which everything else we experience is an outcome and product.

The more we base our awareness in the outer consciousness of the body-life-mind complex, constituting the external personality, the more we suffer from the illusion of separation and we live with fear, pain, suffering and desire. As the Upanishad states: ""But when the Spirit that is within us maketh for himself even a little difference in the Eternal, then he hath fear, year, the Eternal himself becometh a terror to such a knower who thinketh not."

Western psychology has made some progress in recent times toward an understanding of these deeper and subtler states of awareness, albeit by looking at them from outside, trying to define, measure and categorise them. They recognise that certain states of consciousness can lead to euphoric joy, can reduce the experience of pain, and can create a separation from our normal external awareness and a new inner status or standpoint. The phenomenon of 'runner's high' for instance is one such area of exploration, along with the development of techniques such as hypnosis. Certain institutes have begun studying the deep trance states achieved by those who are proficient in meditation to the degree of being able to induce the deep inward awareness known in yogic parlance as Samadhi.

The Upanishads explored inner states of being and awareness. They continue to reveal levels of knowledge and experience that go far beyond the current state of Western psychology. For example the same Upanishad, in Chapter 8, has a unique recitation about the levels of bliss of various beings in various statuses of consciousness. Looking at the utmost positive experience of a human individual, who has youth, intelligence, beauty of his physical being, and having all the wealth he may need to enjoy his life on earth, the Upanishad declares this to be one measure of the bliss of the human being. It then goes on to describe ten higher states of bliss, representing a hierarchy of beings with ever more subtle and powerful levels of consciousness. The Upanishad declares, however, that "this is the bliss of the Vedawise whose soul the blight of desire not toucheth."

As the seeker begins to separate from the gross external levels of consciousness and moves inward, he comes into contact with the soul, the psychic being, the element that is the Divine. Ananda is the natural state of the Divine, permeating and upholding the entire creation at all times.

The Upanishad explain how this is possible: "The Spirit who is here in a man and the Spirit who is there in the Sun, it is one Spirit and there is no other."

Sri Aurobindo observes: "The pure psychic being is of the essence of Ananda, it comes from the delight-soul in the universe; but the superficial heart of emotion is overborne by the conflicting appearances of the world and suffers many reactions of grief, fear, depression, passion, shortlived and partial joy."

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution, Section 6 More Lights on the Psychic Being, pg. 183