View source for Taittiriya Upanishad Lecture 91 Ch2.8 on 11 February 2026

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= A Discourse on Brahmānanda: The Eighth Section of Taittirīya Upaniṣad =

== Opening Invocation ==
ॐ जननीम् शरदाम् देविम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुर्म्

पादपद्मे तयोः स्रित्वाः प्रणमामि मुहुरुमु

Oṁ jananīṁ śaraḍhāṁ deveṁ rāmakriṣṇam jagad-gurum

pādapadmetayosritvā pranamāmi-muhurumuhu

ॐ सह नाववतु ।

सह नौ भुनक्तु ।

सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।

तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ।

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥ हरि ॐ

OM SAHANAVAVATO SAHANAV BHUNAKTO SAHAVIRYAM KARAVAVAHAI TEJASVINAVADHITAMASTUMA VIDVISHAVAHAI OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTIHI HARIHI OM

OM May Brahman protect us both. May Brahman bestow upon us both the fruit of knowledge.

May we both obtain the energy to acquire knowledge.

May what we both study reveal the truth. May we cherish no ill feeling toward each other.

OM PEACE PEACE PEACE BE UNTO ALL

== Introduction to the Eighth Section ==
We have been studying the eighth section of the second chapter of the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, called Brahmānanda Vallī. In this eighth section, a beautiful analysis of what is Ānanda—especially what is Brahmānanda—is being discussed. For that purpose, eleven ascending types or gradations of Ānanda are described.

In this analysis, the highest happiness of a human being is taken as the starting point: a young, healthy, strong, pure, highly idealistic person—the best of human beings—who owns the entire earth. He is the unquestioned, unchallenged, unparalleled emperor of this whole earth. What could be the happiness of such a person? That is taken as a measurement.

Then another ten levels are described until one reaches Brahmaloka—Brahmānaḥ Ānandaḥ. At every stage, the happiness is one hundred times more: one times one hundred, one hundred times one hundred, ten thousand times one hundred, and so on. Actually, we cannot really even imagine what would be the happiness of Brahmaloka. And even that Brahmaloka Ānanda is also nothing, because the finite, when compared with the infinite, is absolutely nothing—not even one billionth or one trillionth part of Brahmānanda.

=== The Purpose of This Teaching ===
That is being explained. What is the purpose? O man, if you want to be happy, then don't go on wasting your time. There is a simpler method where you will obtain all these things very easily and permanently. That bliss will be infinite bliss, and that bliss will not be objective bliss or happiness—reflected happiness obtained through the gradually purified mind. Rather, you realize: "I am that infinite bliss. I am that infinite bliss. I am Sat-Cit-Ānanda," or what is the same, "I am Satyam, Jñānam, Anantam." That's why it is said Anantam—Anantam is Ānanta Ānanda. That is going to be discussed.

== The Five Kośas ==
We have also studied in this very second chapter beautiful descriptions about the five Kośas: Annamaya Kośa, Prāṇamaya Kośa, Manomaya Kośa, Vijñānamaya Kośa, and Ānandamaya Kośa.

When we want to understand what is this Annamaya Kośa, we are not talking about this individual body which is born at some point of time and is continuously changing, continuously undergoing ups and downs—sometimes great, sometimes small, but all the time changing, all the time limited, all the time dependent, etc. And yet there is a kind of Ānanda.

But if we can become one not with this individual body (which we are already identified with) but with the entire Annamaya—which is called Virāṭ—then every happiness that everybody is experiencing, every creature is experiencing, every living being is experiencing, will be ours. And then only we get a glimpse of the innermost Kośa, that is called Prāṇamaya Kośa.

Then the same process is applied: how to get rid of the individual limitation and become one with the universal Kośa—which is Prāṇa Brahma, then Mano Brahma, then Vijñāna Brahma, then Ānandamaya Brahma. That is the highest a person can reach. That is also called Brahmaloka Ānanda.

== Reflected Happiness vs. Real Happiness ==
All these descriptions are only to guide us that you are not experiencing, really speaking, your own Ānanda. You are as if looking at your face in a mirror, and you are experiencing that happiness, that joy. But all these are reflected happinesses, not real happiness. Reflected happinesses means Viṣaya Ānanda—experiences of different Viṣayas (objects).

=== The Process of Removing Obstacles ===
But there is also an important point for us to note down. Every single minute we are identifying ourselves with a particular object. When we achieve complete oneness with that particular individual object, we obtain all that Ānanda that belongs to that object, which really means that I am removing that distance, that separation from myself. I am approaching nearer to myself.

That approaching nearer is by removing the obstacle, which is called an object. Thus, one by one, when we remove—to our great surprise we discover that the mirror itself, in the final object which is called the mind, when that also is removed, that is what is called Citta-Vṛtti-Nirodha. Then who remains? Tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe'vasthānam. Then I remain as my own self, called the seer—not the seen, but the seer. The last seen is the highly purified mind, which is nothing but a combination of time, space, and object.

So that is the real purpose of this eighth section: to teach us. That's why the Upaniṣad has taken a beautiful way. If you can struggle and obtain a higher Ānanda, then your joy will be hundredfold. "Hundred" is not literally hundred—it means indescribably great.

=== The Ineffability of Experience ===
When we are unable to describe even the smallest Ānanda, try this: Suppose you have experienced an exceptionally good sweet and it gave you so much joy. Try to convey that joy by describing it to anybody who has never tasted it. Some people might have seen it but not tasted it. That person will never be able to understand it. He or she should make it, experience it himself or herself, and then only now will understand—not because of your description. You had already discovered independently, but your verbal communication confirms: "Yes, I know what you are talking about."

== The Key Teaching: Purification Without Travel ==
But the most important point is this: At the end of the description of these eleven gradually ascending and expanding experiences of Ānanda, the Upaniṣad inserts a beautiful statement trying to negate: "You don't need to go to higher loka. You just try to purify your mind."

I will come to that point. I am only giving the sūtra or just the important point, which I will expand a little bit later on. Then you need not go anywhere. Just wherever you are, that Ānanda will be yours.

So even if you succeed to clean up your mind, the reflection of Brahman in that purified, clean mirror will be maybe ninety-nine percent accurate, and that is called Brahmaloka Ānanda. But even that is reflected happiness, not real happiness. You, who are standing in front of that cleaned mirror, is that real Brahman, real source of bliss. You are the Ānanda Svarūpa.

=== Understanding Through Layers ===
Coverings are there, and we struggle to remove the coverings. As we succeed in removing the coverings—and every covering has infinite, or almost infinite, numbers of layers—to that extent, from the same object we go on experiencing more and more joy.

I am trying to convey my understanding to all of you. For example, here is a man, and he is a youth, and he married a most beautiful woman. As a grown-up man, his joy will be practically indescribable. But imagine that lady love is not only beautiful—she is pure, she reflects her husband's happiness completely, she is ready to give up her life for him. And then this man discovers: she is not only my wife, but she is also my sister, my mother, my daughter, my well-wisher, my great advisor, and a great cook. And she loves me so much she is ready to give up her life for my happiness.

That means this person is able to see that lady not in one aspect as a partner, but in all aspects. Imagine day after day, until they are separated, they are in the same condition. What could be the happiness, the joy, of that particular person?

So this is what I am trying to convey. This person expands his self—not only on the husband's self, but the father's self, and the mother's self, and the son's self, and the friend's self, and the well-wisher's self. As we discover these qualities in others, we become those qualities. So real joy will come.

=== Application to the Divine Relationship ===
This is only just to make all of us understand. This is how, instead of husband and wife, I—the individual jīva—somehow obtained God, and I have only one feeling, one identity: I am the devotee and You are my deity. Then I discover that is a very limited concept. God is not only my deity, my father, but He is infinite loving mother, infinite loving wife, infinite loving daughter, infinite loving friend, neighbor.

''Tvameva mātā ca pitā tvameva''

''Tvameva bandhuś ca sakhā tvameva''

''Tvameva vidyā draviṇaṁ tvameva''

''Tvameva sarvaṁ mama deva deva''

Just imagine: God is my everything. And if that person understands in the very heart of his heart this concept—that means understanding means identity—so with each further depth of understanding, the distance between the subject and object becomes less and less, until we discover there is no object at all.

== The Sufi Story ==
This is beautifully illustrated in a Sufi story. There were two lovers. One day, a lover wanted to meet his beloved, and she was there in her own cottage. He went there and knocked the door, because he thought that the door was locked from inside. And from within came the question: "Who are you?" And the reply was: "I am so-and-so." The door did not open.

Second time, same question, same answer. Third time, same question. But this time the man said: "I am you, my beloved." And then he found there was no door at all. It was only his imagination. And that is the beautiful point of this beautiful Sufi story which Swami Vivekananda quotes, I think.

== Analysis of Graded Ānandas ==
So in this eighth section, gradations of Brahmānanda are analyzed deeply.

=== First Point: All Graded Ānandas Fall Under Saṁsāra ===
All graded Ānandas, including Brahmaloka Ānanda, fall under Saṁsāra—but with a difference. With each growing identity, we are nearer to God, our mind becomes more pure, and therefore the thickness of Māyā or ignorance also becomes lesser and lesser.

What is Saṁsāra? It means temporary, changing, dependent—also called Mithyā. Mithyā is not non-existence. Mithyā means that which is always temporary, changing, dependent. And every Mithyā Ānanda brings misery before and after.

=== How Does This Work? ===
Because every pleasure, before we experienced that pleasure, it was not there. So it is born when our mind becomes united with that object. If I am eating a sweet, it has nothing to do with the physical object. So what is it? I am thinking, "This, first of all, is a beautiful object, very delectable, very enjoyable object." That is my idea. Maybe it is covered with poison—it doesn't matter. But this is my idea.

So when I experience it, then the object becomes one with me. When I eat a sweet, that sweet becomes me. There will be no difference after some time. That's why I say: "I have some protein. Previously I had less protein, now I have more protein. Previously I had less energy, now I have more energy." So the difference, the distance between subject and object, is completely removed.

=== The Dependence on Truth ===
So that is what we need to understand. It is Mithyā. Every Mithyā is dependent upon Satya (truth). An illusory snake cannot be experienced if there is no real rope. So Brahman is that Satyam, and what we experience is because of the thick layers of our mind as limited in time, space, and causation as all these different objects.

So these are all graded Ānandas to indicate to us that we shouldn't stop here. So you go to higher Ānanda, and evolution will not allow us to stop anywhere. So I must reach Brahmaloka Ānanda. Then only will the desire for Ātmaloka Ānanda appear.

So even this Brahmaloka Ānanda, in comparison with Manuṣya Ānanda, the highest human happiness, is infinitely—so-called infinitely—large. But compared with Brahman, any biggest finite thing is absolutely nothing. That is the first message.

=== The Role of Evolution ===
And we cannot help, because as we discussed earlier, there is something inbuilt within us that is called evolution. Evolution wants to develop our body, to develop our brain or intellect, to develop our experience, enlarge our experience. And it will not stop. Evolution will not stop until we reach where there is nothing further to reach. That is the truth about evolution.

== Why Mithyā Ānanda Brings Misery ==
So every Mithyā Ānanda brings misery, because if something was not there and starts here, everything that starts will have an end.

=== The Alternative Path ===
But the Upaniṣad continues: suppose you go to Brahmaloka Ānanda after what? After tremendous struggle, tremendous sacrifice, tremendous austerity. And then it starts. The moment you reach Brahmaloka, the time starts ticking. And however long it is, it will come to an end. Then one has to fall down.

But one important point which I already mentioned, just to make you remember it: Suppose you are very happy by eating a sweet. How long was your Ānanda? I am using this word Ānanda—you must understand it is reflected Ānanda. Because again, if I call it happiness, joy, pleasure, the meaning will not be conveyed properly. It is nothing but reflected Brahmānanda only. There is no joy, there is no pleasure, there is no happiness. These are all Brahmānanda being reflected in different mirrors with different layers of dust covering them.

=== Classification Systems ===
All of them have been, for the sake of simplicity, classified into five Kośas, or from the Tantra point of view into the seven Cakras, or from the Jñāna Yoga point of view, Saptabhūmi—seven planes of experience. You can research what is called Saptabhūmi in Yoga Vāsiṣṭha or in the path of Jñāna. You will get all those details.

So whatever way it is, Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa described them through a small analogy of how, when the Kuṇḍalinī ascends gradually, what experiences take place. He is trying to describe only this experience of Ānanda as outlined here in this eighth section.

== The Easier Method ==
But the Upaniṣad tells something: to work very hard and you go to higher loka, and it doesn't last long. But there is another way. You don't need to go anywhere. Just sit, because every experience you have, every loka—the mind becomes that loka.

When you remove the covering, the covering of dust, impurity—with each removal of the slightest impurity or dust, another loka is experienced, a higher loka is experienced. So you take refuge under a teacher. This is the much easier method. You don't need to go anywhere and come down.

=== The Experience of Time in Brahmaloka ===
Even if you go to Brahmaloka—I mentioned that point but forgot to continue—supposing a person goes to Brahmaloka. As I was mentioning, suppose you are eating a sweet. The experience of the sweet lasts only for a second, until that object becomes completely one with you—just a momentary happiness.

The point is, the beginning of the Ānanda and the end of the Ānanda last for a very short period of time, like a flash. But the important point is: while a person is experiencing that momentary happiness of a sweet, he forgot time, space, and causation. That means he cannot count. "I only experienced one minute or one second happiness"—he can't say, because to say, one should be able to experience time, space, and causation.

And when we are experiencing time, space, and causation, we are not experiencing Ānanda. And when we are beyond time, space, and causation, we cannot count. That's why you sleep seven hours, wake up, you feel just you went to bed and you woke up.

Apply this analogy to Brahmaloka Ānanda. You just entered, and it is like a long experience of Ānanda, which means a long forgetfulness of time, space, and causation. It is not that "I lived one hundred years, and there I will live a trillion years." That is not the point.

So you lived one hundred years—that means you are a most unhappy person. If you remove all the time you experienced Ānanda or happiness or joy or pleasure, then what remains is we call "I lived so many years." That is the truth. Now you think over it.

=== Brahmaloka Ānanda Also Falls Under Saṁsāra ===
So even Brahmaloka Ānanda falls under this Saṁsāra only. That means Mithyā Ānanda. But if there is somebody who has a deep faith in the scriptures and understands the scriptures and surrenders himself—surrender is the highest sādhana—and then as his ahaṅkāra starts slowly melting into the ocean of Saccidānanda, his identity with Saccidānanda becomes more and more.

=== The Salt Doll Analogy ===
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa tried to explain this to us through the analogy of a salt doll. When a salt doll wanted to measure the depth of the ocean, it jumped into the ocean. And as time passed, it started melting more and more. It becomes the ocean.

Same principle we have to apply. Every sādhana, the more we surrender to God, then the less we remain and the more we become Brahman. That means we experience Brahmānanda, because Brahman means Ānanda. And that alone is the truth, that alone is the pure consciousness, that alone is the infinite bliss.

=== The Experience of Brahmānanda ===
So like that, Brahmānanda gives us—or one can experience Brahmānanda—only when the mind becomes absolutely pure. In a way, perhaps we can compare it to Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's description of what bliss a person experiences when the Kuṇḍalinī rises to the forehead, Ājñā Cakra. Then he feels like jumping, but there is a small layer—he can't jump. But the one within, that Jyotir Jyoti will completely put off that Jyoti, and only Jyotir Jyoti remains. Who can tell what it is? Avāṅ mānasa gocaram. Bujhe pran bujhe jar. This is what we need to understand.

== The Question of Experience ==
So I also put a question. I was describing: here is a person, he is a spiritual sādhaka, he is like Naciketas, completely possessed of faith. And he knows every syllable in the Veda is absolute truth, and he is approaching Guru. The Guru is Yamadharmarāja. Who is Yamadharmarāja? Death. What is death? Death of the ego.

So when the disciple surrenders to the Guru, as much as he surrenders, he becomes the Guru. That means the teaching of the Guru becomes his own. And when completely the distance is removed, destroyed, that is called complete surrender. And the person he becomes—absolutely feels "I am one with Brahman."

=== Does He Really Feel? ===
Does he really feel? We should never commit that mistake, because we have a mind and we want to talk with others, receive and convey our ideas. We say "I feel like that. I ate a sweet, I felt like this." But when you are one with the object, what did you feel? Did you feel "I am happy"?

That understanding comes after you came out of that Ānanda experience. Your mind recollects it, remembers it: "Oh, I was so happy." You should never say "I am happy." You should say "I was so happy." So then mind longs, a kind of intoxication longs, remains: "I would like to have it again and again and again." How much can you eat? Therefore, if I can become one with that Ānanda, that is called spiritual experience.

=== "Aham Brahmāsmi" Is Not Like Our Experience ===
So "Aham Brahmāsmi" is not like our experiencing "I am so-and-so," but it is to convey that highest teaching to people like us.

So I put a question: when we read in the Gospel "Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa has entered into Samādhi, Bhāva Samādhi," is he experiencing or not? What was he experiencing?

Then we will have to understand: once a person experiences Brahmānanda, there is no such thing called coming out of Brahmānanda and after some time going into Brahmānanda, which Ramaṇa Maharṣi used to call Sahaja Samādhi—means unbroken experience. That is called knowledge. That "Aham Brahmāsmi" feeling never disappears.

== Beginning the Text of the Eighth Section ==
With this, I will come back to the subject again. Let us just start.

=== The Seventh Reason for the Existence of Brahman ===
The beginning of this eighth section is to give, to complete, the seventh reason for the existence of Brahman. And it is said: earlier, Brahman is both the cause of fear and fearlessness. If somebody knows "I am Brahman," that becomes the cause of fearlessness. But if somebody thinks even the slightest difference, "I am not Brahman," then that person experiences that separation from one's beloved.

Perhaps you can imagine like that: two people love each other, man and woman, and they are separated. Where do you think their mind will be? Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa separation. And Rādhā suffers. Usually it is not depicted: if Kṛṣṇa suffers, Kṛṣṇa also suffers, for our understanding—not really, because any separation from the Ānanda who is Kṛṣṇa, Ānanda who is Rādhā, that Jīvātmā, exalted Jīvātmā who has surrendered but little distance still is there, ninety-nine percent surrendered, one percent separation, and that becomes unbearable.

So one who knows "I am not Brahman, I am separate from Brahman," for such a person Brahman becomes fear. What does it mean? Fear means limitation. We have to understand: fear means limitation. What is the limitation? "I am small, God is big. I am small, no air. God is all, no air. And my bliss is—my happiness is very limited," means comes and goes like a flash of lightning, etc.

=== The Five Presiding Deities ===
So it is said, this one—as an illustration again, five examples are given how this universe is maintained by Brahman in the form of five presiding deities.

First is the Vāyu Devatā. All these five presiding deities give life to all of us—life not only to the living, even the rocks. What scientists call the non-living, what is called the inorganic, that also is created or manifestation of Brahman. Only the consciousness and bliss are hidden, like in a person in deep sleep.

So for maintaining, He who creates must maintain. And how does He maintain? He becomes the oxygen—that is called Vāyu Devatā. He becomes energy, food—that is called Sūrya Devatā. And that food has to be cooked, and we can only tolerate so much of cold—that becomes the fire. And we require nourishing food—that is represented by the moon. And Mṛtyu—Mṛtyu represents time.

=== Understanding Death and Time ===
So there is nothing called death. Time is moving. That which is like the wheel of a cart, like the wheel of a car, going round and round—so when the next round comes, we call it punarjanma or next birth. And this works unceasingly.

Here only, the Upaniṣad describes Viṣa—that means from terrible fear. There is no choice. All these are functioning. But really speaking, we should not understand fear in that sense, like when we stand in front of a gangster or a murderer—not like that.

Here we have to understand: their infinite love for their own creation. We are the manifestations of the air, the sun, the fire, the Indra, and the Mṛtyu. We should not think the other way, like a dictator, ruthless dictator he is sitting there. But they appear to be ruthless dictators when we do not obey the words of God, their words. All these Gods are teaching: "Behave like this, do this, do not do this."

When we do not follow, like a loving mother they chastise us, and that is called punishment, and that is called Viṣa. But they themselves, they do not fear, because the deities, they know "we are Brahman." But it is given as an example just to support that statement, earlier statement, that when separated from Brahman, thinking "I am different from Brahman" becomes the cause of fear. And that fear is equated with death, because fear means terrible unhappiness.

When we are separated from the embodiment of happiness, that separation itself means unhappiness. Separation from happiness is unhappiness. That is how we have to understand.

So with this, the seventh reason for Brahman's existence is over.

=== Moving to Ānandamīmāṁsā ===
We also said that though logically it is trying to establish that God or supernatural, supersensory truths can never be established through logic—logic means science—science can never prove or disprove. Only scriptures can tell us.

So now, Ānandamīmāṁsā or Brahmānandamīmāṁsā, it is called Brahmamīmāṁsā, Ānandamīmāṁsā, or even better, Brahmānandamīmāṁsā. That's why this second chapter is called Brahmavallī, Ānandavallī, Brahmānandavallī.

And then, first I will go through this eleven very quickly, and then I will tell you we will come to the core point, which is: you don't need to go anywhere, right here you can experience Brahman or even the highest grades of Brahman, provided we do what the scripture asks us to do.

== The Measurement of Happiness ==

=== Establishing the Base Unit ===
First, first, very first: there must be a measurement for anything. You must know what is one inch, one centimeter, or one meter. Then only measurement is possible. You must know "this is one gram weight, this is one kilogram, this is one ton." There must be a commonly understood common measurement, and then only measuring is possible. And by the way, measuring is called Brahmā. Brahmā means to measure it rightly. That means Brahmā is another word for right knowledge, correct knowledge, non-mistaken knowledge.

So a young man is taken, because we are people—men, women—we are human beings. A human being is taken, that is called Manuṣya. So here is a human being in the prime of his youth.

=== The Description of Perfect Human Happiness ===
Let us read it and then come to the simple meaning. What follows now is a more or less detailed analysis about Ānanda.

Imagine one measure of the highest human bliss. Imagine there is a young man. He is in what we call the prime of youth, in the peak of health. And he is sādhu—he is not a gangster. He is one of the gentlest of people, an embodiment of a gentleman. Sādhu, like sādhu.

So he follows only one who understands everything, is called a teacher—means what? That he becomes one who is capable of ruling absolutely. His very eyelid moves and things take place in his presence. He has the highest ideals embodied in one person. What is called unmovable willpower. Physically he is strong, mentally he is strong, in every way he is strong.

Imagine all these things may be there in a person, but he may be very poor. In fact, anybody who wants to become a spiritual person must possess all these things. Otherwise, any lacuna in any of these things, the person cannot really improve.

Imagine he is young, he is sādhu, and he is in the peak of health, prime of youth. And he has that commanding presence, and he is of highest ideals, all combined. And his what is called his willpower is immovable. Physically, mentally, aesthetically, morally, he is the highest, strongest.

And imagine also that this entire earth—for that he is the ruler. All, not even one small part belongs to anybody else, any country. And it is full of all sorts of wealth, above and below. And this person, what type of happiness he obtains? This is the measure of one human happiness, one measure of human happiness.

=== The Ascent Through Higher Lokas ===
From next time onwards, there is a higher type of being, that is called higher loka. It is called Manuṣya Gandharva. Manuṣya Gandharva means an ideal person following the scriptures, works, progresses spiritually, and attains to Gandharva Loka through Upāsanā. He is called Manuṣya Gandharva, and he goes to the world called Manuṣya Gandharva Loka.

And what is that Manuṣya Gandharva Loka? Imagine the happiness one derives there is one hundred times more than what this human being really owns, experiences all the time.

=== The Key Insight: No Need to Travel ===
But then, from here onwards, ten times—nobody need go there. His mind is his loka, and his mind is filled with Śraddhā, like Naciketas. And he knows that "I don't have any desires, because as a Śrotriya, I am getting all that happiness of Manuṣya Gandharva Loka from myself."

That is what the scripture wants to repeat every time. So a person who is a Śrotriya, with unwavering faith in the scriptures—naturally that means that faith makes him perform austerities or spiritual practices—and he attains to a higher state of mind. And therefore he becomes desireless, not completely desireless, but with regard to all the happiness, pleasures of this human happiness, he gives up.

How can he give up? Because he is getting that happiness by attaining to that state of mind. His mind has become, has evolved to a higher loka. Loka means that which he experiences, where he is now living, in Manuṣya Gandharva Loka. So what people going to that loka experience, this person is experiencing without going anywhere, just by purifying his mind and ascending to that higher state—that is called Akāmahata.

=== Understanding Akāmahata ===
We have to understand Akāmahata not in isolation, but with regard to whatever happiness he had experienced. Earlier he had experienced Manuṣya Ānanda. By purifying himself, and now as soon as he started experiencing the higher Ānanda, he becomes desireless for the Manuṣya Ānanda.

Just as when we experience a class-one sweet, our natural inclination for the village sweet automatically falls down without effort. Like that, he becomes totally desireless. If somebody mentions also, he will say, "I don't need, I don't need"—not because "I have given up hope," but because "I am experiencing a higher happiness."

This is how it proceeds. The Upaniṣad proceeds. This eighth section proceeds. And we will discuss these things in our next class.

== Closing Prayer ==
ॐ जननीम् शरदाम् देविम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुर्म्

पादपद्मे तयोः स्रित्वाः प्रणमामि मुहुरुमु

Oṁ jananīṁ śaraḍhāṁ deviṁ rāmakriṣṇam jagad-gurum

pādapadmetayosritvā pranamāmi-muhurumuhu

'''May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna!'''
[[Category:Taittiriya Upanishad]]