ENLIGHTENMENT: Is there a point to bliss?

My Guru-given name is Devananda; roughly translated that would be Angel of Bliss. This name was given to me when Master first took me into His fold, initiating me and introducing me to the Path of Knowledge, Gyana Yoga, almost thirty years ago. That was before I knew what bliss was, when I was still possessed of all the questions, including those similar to OQ,

From my perspective, the entire point of this journey was to get grounded in the fact of my total freedom to do as I do and be as I am. Or try this tense – To do as I does and Be as I Am. There are a couple variations on that and I’m afraid this goes well beyond grammar now, but the point I’d like to make concerns freedom, first and foremost.

We all share the same inalienable rights, before Hammurabi or the U.S. Constitution. Waking up to this fact, for real, not as an intellectual understanding, but at the core of You, is one of the first steps to Liberation from a variety of constraints that we as humans likewise share. The point of Enlightenment is to have the questions answered. When Self begins to shout loudly from behind the veil of I, when the splinter in the mind’s eye begins to wedge itself so deeply that the pain breaks through the matrix of belief and education we’re woven up in, when the burning desire to know what the hell is going on here and questions like the meaning of life and purpose of existence and others well up to the forefront of consciousness, then they absolutely must be answered. This is the point. To get the answers. To get your freedom. Bliss is the natural by-product of this realization.

There are only a few choices left after this Self-realization, this enlightenment. One can sit back in his untouchable bliss, be absorbed in samadhi, just be as a being. One can teach. Or one can go about living a life with all that entails. I chose to teach AND live a life – and what an amazing life it is! To Samadhi and Back Again – it could almost be a Tolkien tale for all the fantastic adventures on the path.

But bliss is not a giddy happiness and weird smile plastered on the face twenty-four hours a day. It is a state of absolute freedom from the whims of an unconscious belief system. It is a state of non-judgment and absolute clarity that is able to move in any situation, quiescent, fearless, and yes, happily, even though I walk through the valley of death – there is no evil. That rod and staff of comfort are my very own, running straight up and down the middle of me. Now I am free to Be. As I am. As I AM.