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You may say: "What use then of pleasure, if pain is so splendid a
from: thing?" From pleasure comes illumination. Pleasure enables theSelf to manifest.
In pleasure all the vehicles of the Self are
made harrnonious; they all vibrate together; the vibrations are
rhythmical, not jangled as they are in pain, and those rhythmical
vibrations permit that expansion of the Self of which I spoke,
and thus lead up to illumination, the knowledge of the Self.
And if that be true, as it is true, you will see that pleasure plays
an immense part in nature, being of the nature of the Self,
belonging to him. When it harmonises the vehicles of the Self
from outside, it enables the Self more readily to manifest
himself through the lower selves within us.
Hence happiness is a condition of illumination. That is the explanation
of the value of the rapture of the mystic; it is an intense joy. A tremendous
wave of bliss, born of love triumphant, sweeps over the whole of
his being, and when that great wave of bliss sweeps over him, it
harmonises the whole of his vehicles, subtle and gross alike, and
the glory of the Self is made manifest and he sees the face of his God.
Then comes the wonderful illumination, which for the
time makes him unconscious of all the lower worlds. It is because
for a moment the Self is realising himself as divine, that it is
possible for him to see that divinity which is cognate to
himself. So you should not fear joy any more than you fear pain,
as some unwise people do, dwarfed by a mistaken religionism.
That foolish thought which you often find in an ignorant religion,
that pleasure is rather to be dreaded, as though God grudged joy
to His children, is one of the nightmares born of ignorance and terror.
The Father of life is bliss. He who is joy cannot grudge
Himself to His children, and every reflection of joy in the world
is a reflection of the Divine Life, and a manifestation of the
Self in the midst of matter. Hence pleasure has its function as
well as pain and that also is welcome to the wise, for he
understands and utilises it.
You can easily see how along this line pleasure and pain become
equally welcome. Identified with neither, the wise man takes either
as it comes, knowing its purpose.
When we understand the places of joy and of pain, then
both lose their power to bind or to upset us. If pain comes, we
take it and utilise it.
If joy comes, we take it and utilise it. So we may pass through life,
welcoming both pleasure and pain, content whichever may come to us,
and not wishing for that which is for the moment absent.
We use both as means to a desired end; and thus we may rise to a higher indifference
than that of the stoic, to the true vairagya; both pleasure and pain are
transcended, and the Self remains, who is bliss.
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