EXPERIENCING BLISS PART 1

Rao Saheb. K. Kothandapani Pillai, B.A., in a forward to Dr.C.Srinivasan's AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF RAMALINGA SWAMI wrote,

The philosophic thoughts and spiritual experiences (of Ramalinga Adigal) are scattered all over his 6000 verses (40000 lines) and his discourses with his disciples and comments.

According to Dr.C.Srinivasan, Ramalinga Adigal speaks about several experiences that one attains.

• achievement of the Divine Life (Uyiranubavam), 
• experience of the Grace Supreme (Arulanubavam), and
• experience and realization of God Supreme (Sivanubavam)

These experiences take place in the

• body of Love (Anburu or Suddhadeham), 
• body of Grace (Aruluru or Pranava deham) and 
• body of Bliss (Inburu or Gnana deham) respectively.

Dr.C.Srinivasan explains further.

The Achievement of the Divine Life (Uyiranubavam)

This is the preliminary state in which the soul is to enjoy in full the real and natural happiness it is entitled to without any restraint. A human being of this world from the moment of successful fertilization in his mother’s womb suffers from some thing or other. In fact the sufferings which he has to undergo are also born along with him. The Swami (Ramalinga Adigal) has narrated the miseries of the fetus before birth and those of the child after birth in one of his great petitions to God. For those who take the sufferings of life seriously, life is monotonous. All seers of knowledge, ascetics of various ages and saints of different creeds and countries have been worrying about the miseries of life in this world. No living organism on earth or elsewhere will be happy to part with its own life. Life is sweet to all living things and death is always painful even to the highly enlightened souls. All the great saints and sages who have discovered solutions, ways and means to avoid the miseries of life, death, rebirth and so on preached only devotion to God. The Swami also, like others before him in the line of descent of saints, stated that one should get out of the bondage for being bound to the boundless God Supreme. In other words the soul has become divine and dwells in the Grace of the Supreme God.

Our very first task is to become divine and one with Erai through divine pursuit and seek the Grace of Erai.

The Experience of the Supreme Grace (Arulanubavam)

Now what is this state of divine experience? This is called (Arulanubavam) the experience of the Supreme Grace. The soul of this plane of Paranatham dwelling in the Supreme Light of Grace in a blissful state and enjoying the sublime achievement and experience of the soul (Uyiranubavam) and having been endowed with the sanctified golden body, is subjected further more to the hold of the Supreme Grace fully and completely for the evolution of the next higher plane. This transcendent plane of experience of the Grace (Arulanubavam) is achieved by divine pursuit. The soul is to enjoy the Supreme Grace.

The divine soul is entertained bodily as a part and parcel of the Supreme Grace and is permeated through and through. It is enshrined in the Divine Grace as an ever-existing and omnipresent object. It is to be found within the plane of Parambaram. The profundity of the Grace Supreme is inconceivably pleasant. It exists pervading the universe as an inexplicable entity. This experience of the divine aspirant is known as the experience of the Supreme Grace (Arulanubavam). Words fail to explain the different aspects of this blissful stage. The body of the divine aspirant transforms itself into an incarnation of Grace.

With Supreme Grace descending on us next we become one with Erai.

Experience of the God Supreme (Sivanubavam)

The third and the ultimate state of the aspirant is the complete realization of the God Supreme (Sivanubavam). This is the most sublime and the highest plane of the most auspicious Godhead (Suddha Sivam). This is the all-pervading, all-knowing, all-embracing Super-Being. It is only at this plane that complete realization and complete merging with God is accomplished.

Here and here alone the great realization “He thou art, thou art He, Ye enjoy in Him” is achieved. The Supreme combustion results in the inseparable monism of the highest order. This plane of transcendence soars higher and higher into the most superior Godhead. It is inconceivable, uninferable and unimaginable even by the heavenly powers and divine beings and deities of high order.

This sublime achievement of the aspirant culminates in the complete union with the Lord Supreme for the eternal enjoyment of Supreme Bliss for ever and ever after. The experience of the Swami at this plane have spontaneously and profusely overflown into many of his melting verses sung in ecstasy.