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Ānanda (Hindu philosophy)


Ānanda (Sanskrit: आनन्द) literally means or happiness. In the Hindu Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad gita, ānanda signifies eternal bliss which accompanies the ending of the rebirth cycle. Those who renounce the fruits of their actions and submit themselves completely to the divine will, arrive at the final termination of the cyclical life process (saṃsāra) to enjoy eternal bliss (ānanda) in perfect union with the godhead. The tradition of seeking union with God through passionate commitment is referred to as bhakti, or devotion.

Swami Vivekananda has claimed that the reason different meanings of ānanda and different ways of achieving it are present in Hindu philosophy is that humans differ from each other, and each chooses the most appropriate path to ānanda for him or herself.

According to Sri Aurobindo, happiness is the natural state of humanity, as he mentions in his book the life divine he informs about it as delight of existence. However, mankind develops dualities of pain and pleasure. Aurobindo goes on to say that the concepts of pain and suffering are due to habits developed over time by the mind, which treats success, honour and victory as pleasant things and defeat, failure, misfortune as unpleasant things.

According to the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, ananda is that state of sublime delight when the jiva becomes free from all sins, all doubts, all desires, all actions, all pains, all sufferings and also all physical and mental ordinary pleasures. Having become established in Brahman it becomes jivanmukta (a being free from the cycle of rebirth). The Upanishads repeatedly use the word Ānanda to denote Brahman, the innermost Self, the Blissful One, who unlike the individual Self has no real attachments.


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