Happiness in Devotion

Anyone who is actually performing transcendental devotional service according to the process given in the Esoteric Teaching will be happy. If someone claims to be advanced in the Esoteric Teaching or spiritual life, but is not happy, then he’s not performing the process properly.

For example, there are several organizations that claim to be teaching the process of devotional service given in Bhagavad-gita and other Vedic scriptures. Although some of these organizations claim to have a monopoly on the Esoteric Teaching, we see that they are fighting bitterly among themselves, and even within their own groups. This is not the behavior of people who are happy and satisfied with their state of self-realization.

So when we are searching for spiritual truth or instruction, the first thing we should consider is whether the person who is claiming to teach us is actually happy and peaceful. If he is not happy, then he is doing something else in the name of devotional service. If he is not peaceful, if he is argumentative, bickering and fighting with his brothers or neighbors, then he cannot be happy.

“In the stage of perfection called trance, or samadhi, one’s mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This perfection is characterized by one’s ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness, realized through transcendental senses.” [Bhagavad-gita 6.20-21]

If one is actually rendering devotional service to the Supreme Lord, then according to Kṛṣṇa, he must be feeling boundless transcendental happiness. Just like if you eat some nice food, then you should feel strength and satisfaction of your hunger. If you say, “I’m eating, but my hunger is not satisfied,” then something is wrong.

For example, sometimes it happens that a person’s intestines become infected with worms or other parasites. You may be eating, but the food is being devoured by the parasites in your intestines. If there are many intestinal parasites, you may go on eating voraciously, but you don’t get any strength because the nourishment is taken by the worms. Therefore you must take treatment to kill the parasites. You will not get benefit from eating until you are cured of the disease.

So if someone claims to be advanced in rendering devotional service but does not display the symptoms of transcendental happiness, there must be some spiritual disease, a parasitic infection of the soul. If you are actually executing devotional service, you will feel satisfied and happy. If you don’t feel happy, if you are frustrated and quarrelsome, then whatever you may think you are doing, it is not really devotional service. There is some flaw in your understanding or implementation of the Esoteric Teaching. You have to rectify the process of your service. Not change, not stop, but rectify the process.

Anyone who is actually in touch with Kṛṣṇa will certainly be happy, because Kṛṣṇa’s spiritual body is composed of pure transcendental bliss. And anyone who is in touch with that person will also be happy. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is similar to electricity. If one person is in touch with the electric main, and another person touches him, the second one will also feel the flow of electricity through his body. Similarly if our Kṛṣṇa consciousness is rightly connected, then whether the connection is direct or indirect, we will be happy, because in the spiritual world there is no qualitative difference between direct and indirect relationship.

The method of propagation of the Esoteric Teaching is called parampara, or disciplic succession.

evam parampara-praptam imam rajarsayo viduh

“This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.2]

So if we are in touch with a spiritual master who is actually connected to Kṛṣṇa, then the electrical connection is there and we can feel the current of bliss. Whether the connection is direct or indirect doesn’t matter; if the connection is there then the electrical current of transcendental bliss will come without fail. So to understand whether someone is really Kṛṣṇa conscious or self-realized, we simply have to see whether their connection with Kṛṣṇa is connected, and they are feeling the transcendental happiness of samadhi.

In our materially conditioned stage of consciousness there are so many doubts, so many complications. But the real indication of advancement in self-realization is very simple: transcendental happiness. Our problem is that we are not simple; we have become artificially complex, due to so many associations and identifications with different material qualities. So we can be deceived and misled by people who are motivated to convince us that they are spiritually advanced.

The perfection of yoga is transcendental bliss derived from samadhi, deep meditation on the spiritual form of Kṛṣṇa. One who is fully self-realized is directly in touch with Kṛṣṇa every moment. He can advise us from his personal experience how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious and attain the highest goal of human life. Only such an actually advanced soul is qualified to be a spiritual Master Teacher. And we can know him because his complete inner engagement in spiritual pastimes of devotional service yield the rare fruit of unconditional transcendental happiness.