Ramakrishna once said, I didn’t come to the mango orchard to count mangoes. I came here to eat them. (1)
By the same token, I don’t know the biochemistry of bliss or the mechanics of its delivery. I just want to feel it.
Or love. Or joy. Or peace.
This must be a Ramakrishna day. He also said, walk into the Lake of Immortal Bliss. Run in. Get pushed in. Just get into the Lake. (2)
I agree with that too. All questions cease when one is immersed in the Lake of Bliss, the Ocean of Love.
Therefore, never mind spending thousands of dollars on a trip to Hawaii for that magic moment of bliss on the balcony overlooking the bay. Go directly to the bliss.
Address: The Heart.
Portal to all good things, as Michael tells us:
“Yes, it begins and it ends with – it always comes back to – the heart.” (3)
Always.
In my view, a watershed moment occurs when we genuinely and completely realize love’s address and give up looking for the divine states outside ourselves. As Jesus through John Smallman says:
“As humans in form, you all want LOVE, and for many it seems that it is outside you, to be found within someone else. So you spend large parts of your human lives seeking it from that perfect other who you hope will, when found, fulfill you, making you feel complete, seen, heard, understood (at last!), and cherished above all others. But of course what you seek elsewhere can only be found within yourselves.” (4)
We ask and receive. We knock and the door of the heart is opened. We realize that we have an artesian well of love and bliss inside ourselves, just waiting to be found.
We’ve heard rumors of the existence of this fountain of youth, this wellspring of goodness, where we can drink ambrosia, the nectar of the gods, until we’re satiated. Now, this is it.
So, no trip to Hawaii. No finding a guru. I’m taking the direct route. I seek the divine qualities in the place God hid them, awaiting my discovery – in my very own heart.
Footnotes
(1) Pasupati: “Sir, what do you think of Theosophy and Spiritualism? Are these true? What do you think of the solar plane, the lunar plane, the stellar plane?”
Master: “My dear sir, I don’t know about these things. Why bother about them so much? You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes. Enjoy them. What is the use of your calculating how many mango-trees there are, how many millions of branches , how many billions of leaves? … Once a man’s inner spirit is awakened, once he succeeds in knowing God, he doesn’t feel the desire to know all this rubbish.” (Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Swami Nikhilananda, trans., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 819.)
(2) “You see, the thing is somehow or other to get into the Lake of the Nectar of Immortality. Suppose one person gets into It by propitiating the Deity with hymns and worship, and you are pushed into It. The result will be the same. Both of you will certainly become immortal.” (Ibid., 217.) “Become immortal” = Sahaja Samadhi = Liberation = Ascension.
(3) Archangel Michael in a personal reading with Steve Beckow through Linda Dillon, Sept. 21, 2018.
(4) “Jesus through John: To be Incarnate as a Human in Form is a Gift of Inestimable Value that You have Given Yourselves,”