Living in Bliss

Living in Bliss

Chit ananda rupam Shivoham Shivoham

My body is like a vehicle in which I travel in this world. My senses are like the windows of this vehicle and my mind is the engine that I use to run my worldly affairs. I use the “I” thought to play a role in this world. I am not to confuse myself to be the vehicle. There is a whole lot of difference between the vehicle and the owner who runs it. The sorrow of the vehicle is not the sorrow of the owner. When there is wear and tear in the vehicle, the owner does not suffer wear and tear. All sorrow is created due to our wrong identification with the instruments which we use to work in this world. A thought “I” am sad arises in our mind. Who is this “I”? This “I” is merely a thought in the mind. If we get driven by the thought unconsciously giving it our assent, we start feeling sad. We need not feel sad when the “I am sad” thought arises. We may even just observe its occurrence and watch its death. It’s just that we are all playing our respective roles in this drama of life. The masks we use to operate in our roles are our body and the mind. The “I” thought is the “I” of the role. We are the one’s playing the role. To whom is the sorrow? Sorrow is simply a misperception.

In these 6 verses Sri Adi Shankaracharya explains to us how we are different from the masks we wear. We can use these as aids to meditation. We simply sit down and recognize the truth in these verses clearly and be with it. By thus being a witness we observe that sorrow cannot cling to it and the sorrow of the “I” thought is not our sorrow. This practice of detachment is what is suggested in bhagavad gita as “abhyasa vairagya”. In fact, to detach we need to be attached in the first place. Can something cling to us in the first place? Let’s look at this. Whatever clings, clings to the role and not to the one who plays the role.

“Chit ananda rupam Shivoham Shivoham”, “Aham Shiva:” I am shiva. Shiva is a word, so what does that mean? It is “Anada Rupa:” it’s of the form of Bliss. I am that embodied Bliss. If we are embodied bliss, why do we suffer? It’s strange, coz, just as fire cannot feel cold, coz fires very being is heat. It’s not fire’s property, but it’s being itself. Same way, Shiva is Bliss, they are not two things and Sankaracharya says in his Nirvana Shatakam, that he is that Bliss. There is therefore no question of suffering. Suffering is an error in perception. If we can simply abide within in ourselves, we discover this fact that all our sense of incompleteness is a misperception.