The Pursuit of Bliss

(Synopsis of a lecture given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj in Shyama Shyam Dham, Bhubhaneshwar, India. This lecture was given 2 or 3 years ago, but the topic is as relevant now as it was then.) Today is the last day of this year. Tomorrow, the world will joyfully celebrate the new year. But this is wrong. Because this is actually not a joyful situation. Rather it is an occasion for remorse. Imagine you saved 100,000 rupees. If you spent 50,000 of this, you don’t celebrate. Instead you think, “Oh, now only 50,000 are left!” Eventually only 2,000 are left. Now only 1,000 are left. Similarly, this human body was given to us by God to attain our ultimate aim. How much closer have we come to that aim? How much devotion or upasana did we do? Upasana (devotion) means to go ‘pas‘, close. The meaning of upasana is to go close to God. How much closer to God have we gone? For example, someone is feeling cold. Before him there is fire. The closer he goes to the fire, the more his feeling of