Happiness, Love & Beauty

We all want to be happy. But what is happiness, really?

It's not that easy to define what happiness is. Yet we all long for it. Why?

Ánanda Márga says it is human nature to look for happiness. In our attempts to find happiness, we often look for it through to love, beauty or wisdom.

If you think of longing for happiness as actually longing for God — love, beauty and wisdom are different intuitive glimpses of God. In other words, if you have a powerful idea or a fulfilling experience of love, beauty or wisdom — it is a notion of God. Oftentimes, we think of the person, place or object that gave rise to that experience as its source. If you think of the source as being God instead, you are beginning to understand human nature — dharma.

This also means that God is more beautiful than any beauty we can think of, a greater love than we can ever imagine, and a deeper wisdom than any conception of knowledge.

The experience of God is called ánanda — infinite happiness.

Consciousness & Energy

Ánanda Márga is a monotheistic philosophy that uses different names to describe different aspects of the same Cosmic Entity.

Cosmic Consciousness is the Cognitive Principle. Cosmic Energy is the Operative Principle. Although these principles are sometimes described as two distinct entities for the sake of explanation, they are ultimately inseparable aspects of the one and only Brahma.

Brahma is God, the Generator Operator Destroyer, the Cosmic Entity. In Ánanda Márga philosophy God is often referred to as the Supreme Consciousness, or Parama Puruśa.

Everything in the Universe is an expression of Brahma. Mind is subtle, and matter is crude. Therefore, mind has more consciousness, and less energy. Matter has less consciousness, and more energy. Since matter has more energy, more attributes are expressed, such as sound, touch, form, taste and smell. Still, everything has both consciousness and energy, but in varying degrees.

There are two phases of creation. The first phase is from subtle to crude. In the first phase, Consciousness is influenced by Energy to create the Cosmic Mind. Then Consciousness is influenced to a greater extent, creating the physical world.

The second phase is from crude to subtle. It is the phase of evolution, in which consciousness in less developed life forms evolves into more developed life forms through reincarnation. Consciousness evolves into human beings who ultimately reach the highest spiritual goal of Yoga, becoming one with the Supreme Consciousness.

Devotion

The spiritual practice of Ánanda Márga is to constantly focus on Brahma. In everyday life, the spiritual practice is to perform actions in service of Brahma. In meditation Brahma is the main focus.

This focus is called God-centered spirituality, or devotion. The Sanskrit word for devotion is bhakti.

All practices of Ánanda Márga are for the sake of attaining Yoga, becoming one with Brahma.

Further Reading

The book Ananda Marga Elementary Philosophy by Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti has a more in-depth explanation of the Supreme Consciousness and its relation to humanity.

The books Ananda Sutram by Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti and Idea and Ideology by Shrii Prabhát Raiṋjan Sarkár have even deeper explanations of the Supreme Consciousness and the Universe.