Priti

Q)What is Priti? Differences between happiness and Priti?

Every living entity is looking for happiness or ananda. Whatever activity one may perform, the purpose is happiness.

Then Srila Jiva Gosvami analyzed material and transcendental happiness and by doing so he concluded that Priti or love is actually the purpose of life because happiness is seen when a person loves somebody or something. In Priti a devotee does not feel distressed whether he is in a favorable or unfavorable situation. He always feels happy.

Now one has to understand the differences between happiness and Priti. He says (sanskrit words), happiness means "knowledge of delightness". Happiness is nothing but a perception, knowledge. When something happens and one feels delighted that feeling means "knowledge", it is a perception. Happiness is nothing but a sensation. In medical science they have discovered that different parts in the brain, which are connected with the various senses, can be stimulated to provoke a certain type of happiness. Like the experince of satisfaction of having a nice feast although one is not in contact with the food, one is not conscious of the object of satisfaction. So this experience of happiness is only a sensation of the brain, it is not something that springs from within the heart.This word Priti or love comes from the root prin which means satisfy or please. Obviously when there is a question of satisfying or pleasing there is an object whom one satisfies. Therefore Priti is never without an object. Material happiness can be without an object but Priti cannot exist without the object of Priti because the very root of the word means to satisfy. There has to be somebody to whom one satisfies or pleases. The happiness is not the real caracteristic of Priti and therefore the devotees do not ask for it. "Either You appear or not appear before me; You treat me harshly or out of love, in any case I want to be always Your servant." This is Priti.

The happiness for which everyone is dying, commiting violence, engaging in sinful activities, cheating, and so on, it is not but a particular sensation in the body. In yoga system there are different means to derive the same sensation. If one can control the life airs in a particular way and send them to the brain he can feel a sensation of happiness and enjoy trance. This is samadhi-sukha, it is also external. It is all a mechanical system and that is why this happiness is also mechanical. There is no need to endeavor for this mechanical happiness. Why waist spiritual life to pursuit a mechanical happiness?

"sukha is nothing but the enjoyement of a feeling". (happiness is also a kind of disturbance in the mind. In nyaya, happiness is counted among the 21 types of misery)

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