सुखं त्विदानीं त्रिविधं श्रृणु मे भरतर्षभ ।
अभ्यासाद्रमते यत्र दुःखान्तं च निगच्छति ॥ १८.३६ ॥
यत्तदग्रे विषमिव परिणामेऽमृतोपमम् ।
तत्सुखं सात्त्विकं प्रोक्तमात्मबुद्धिप्रसादजम् ॥ १८.३७ ॥

sukham tvidānīm tri-vidham śṛṇu me bharatarṣabha |
abhyāsād-ramate yatra du:khāntam ca nigacchati || 18.36 ||
yat-tad-agre viṣamiva pariṇāme’mṛtopamam |
tat-sukham sāttvikam proktam-ātmabuddhi-prasādajam || 18.37 ||

Audio-BG-18.36

Audio-BG-18.37

Three-fold classification of joy

The eighteenth chapter had begun with Arjuna’s question on tyāga and sannyāsa, both of which denote abandonment and renunciation. Krishna discussed the subject in an altogether new light, exposing the three-fold classification of human characteristics based on the three guṇas – sattva, rajas and tamas – which constitute entire nature. Thus, depending on these constituents, mind, intelligence, will and ego of every individual will be different, and will irresistibly reflect different perceptions and evaluations. It is the guṇas that make one’s understanding low, mediocre or high.

The sāttvika state, needless to say, is the best. It facilitates the blossoming of knowledge and wisdom unhinderedly in ample measure. In the rājasika state, the person will inevitably display a strong undercurrent of sensory overtones. In the tāmasika, the mind and intelligence will be totally clouded and distorted, making the person behave in the worst manner. The impartial and impersonal Soul reigns as the core, equidistant from all these variations. Inculcating and enhancing the sāttvika character will alone facilitate Soul-enlightenment.

As in the bodily constitution and blood chemistry, variety prevails in the inner constitution too. In humans, the inner complexity is most pronounced. Animals and birds may not change or improve their ways; but humans are different – they alone have the potential and possibility to attempt with discretion, the desirable improvement in themselves. In fact, this inner evolution and enrichment is indispensable for everyone.

Individuals constitute the society. So the changes in individuals alone will be the means to bring about societal improvement too. Thus, individual options and pursuits are important. Spiritual values and perceptions, aiming at all-fold development of human personality, are hence paramount.

Everything that one does is with a view to have happiness, comfort and delight. All these are denoted by the word sukham. By sensory activity, by articulation, by mentation and intellection (thinking and understanding) what is verily sought for oneself is contentment and happiness. The net result of all that we do physically, orally and inwardly, is to beget and derive happiness. Without contentment life will be in vain. Thus, contentment becomes the sole objective of human life.

Sāttvika delight

Krishna’s treatment of the subject is very revealing. He says that this happiness, sukham, also falls into three categories. It implies that a discreet individual must make sure that the experience of happiness has a progressive and refining note, so as to make the experiencer, the individual concerned, evolve and gain the desired fulfillment. With this in view, he discusses sukham as three-fold, presenting the sāttvika kind first:

O chief of Bharatas, listen to me now about the three kinds of delight, happiness. That, wherein one finds happiness through consistent spiritual practice, which has the power to terminate all misery, which is seemingly poison-like to start with but is nectarine in the end, which emerges from the mind’s placidity resulting from the contemplation on the supreme Self, is considered sāttvika.

Of the three kinds of happiness, the sāttvika one, says Krishna, is derived by spiritual and religious pursuit. In other words, the sāttvika delight has its origin in oneself, totally independent of the external sensory objects of the world.

Worship, austerity and meditation come under this category. Viewed properly, every one of these is aimed at bringing about a change or influence not in the objects outside, but in the very subject of the performer.

While discussing meditation, Krishna described the spiritual happiness as atīndriyam, transcending the sensory range. However, it is buddhigrāhyam, reachable by the intelligence (6.21). He also said that it is the ultimate delight. Being atīndriyam, it is clear that sense-object interaction is neither involved nor necessary for it. It is the Subject-based delight, emerging solely from within. At the same time, our buddhi, intelligence, is competent enough to get at it, and also generate it abundantly. In fact, the sole purpose of meditation is to reveal and experience such inner Self-based happiness.

It is an utter delusion to think that either the body or an external object can be a source of happiness. Body is but inert. So are the objects of the world. Devoid of any power to sense, feel or think, how can the material world or its objects, including our body, pose as a seat or source of experience at all, not to speak of sukham?

This is how Krishna says that the sāttvika kind of sukham is that which emerges from practice (abhyāsa) and from the enlightened intelligence (ātma-buddhi prasādajam). The right sukha is that which the mind and intelligence together engender by becoming pure, refined and introspective.

Krishna says further that the sāttvika sukha has the power to redress all kinds of afflictions and torments. Earlier also he explained that it is completely bereft of any kind of contact or association with duḥkha, duḥkha-samyoga-viyogam (6.23). When the fountain of happiness is discovered as inner, there is no question of any barter for it. It is never lost for the seeker.

To explain the concept further, the inner consciousness alone initiates all sensory interactions. During and after the interactions, that alone remains the sole base for them. Thus, happiness does not belong to either the objects one interacts with or the senses. Only those who are unable to understand the mind to be different from the body, will think that the body and senses are capable of bestowing sukha.

The sāttvika sukha is generated and experienced from within. Apart from the fact that it is solely inner, it has the additional power to bring an end to all duḥkhas in life (duḥkhāntam). All sensory delights, interactional thrills are kṛtrima, artificial. But the inner contentment, ātma-sukha is sovereign, wholesome. The difference is very significant. Krishna adds that because of the discreet effort required to get at sāttvika sukha, it may seem to be “poisonous”, meaning distasteful, in the beginning. The effort for sāttvika sukha consists in adopting and pursuing spiritual disciplines, moderation and refinement. It primarily means a retreat from the craze for sensory indulgences.

To the ordinary people, due to their lack of knowledge about the mind – how, being different from the body, the mind is verily the source of all experiences – any restraint or regimentation becomes unacceptable. Austerity is looked upon as a disadvantage, a denial of the conventional avenues of pleasure and comfort in life.

The truth is that austerity has the sole aim of empowering the mind, intelligence and will of the individual. It sharpens all faculties and instills patience, tolerance, endurance and the like, which are inevitable for sustained performance and achievement.

Ever since one wakes up, he plunges into the daily interactions of various kinds, often devoid of rest or retreat. In the background of such excessive indulgence and interactions, to spend some time austerely will be to make a distinct self-based, ‘proto-active’ effort at inner refinement.

The Self is already blissful. But, due to unbridled interactions and their multiple effects on the mind, this inner bliss is not felt. Overpowered by ignorance and delusion, sensory indulgences dominate our life, subduing the possibility for inward quietitude and poise. Empowering the mind with true reflection and contemplation on the Self, the seeker can gain and master the sāttvika sukha that comes from the evenness (samatva) of the mind.

Arjuna began to shed tears of affliction, because of the threat posed by his mind of possible sin the Kurukṣetra battlefield posed. But when Krishna exposed him to the truths of the mind, intelligence and the immortal Soul, instilling the right evaluation and perception of life and the world, his affliction disappeared. How could this be? Arjuna was able to feel the sāttvika notes of inner delight (sukha), which his receptive mind and intelligence generated, on listening to Krishna’s words of spiritual wisdom.

By taking up the practice of Yoga and sublimating the mind with evenness (samatva), by reinforcing the pursuit by proper reflection and contemplation on the Self, the seeker is trying to gain and master sāttvika sukha. Purity and placidity of the mind are the factors needed for this kind of refined, self-enriching contemplation and absorption.