"This bliss of Brahman cannot be conceived by us. It is so unlike all our joys! All our joys have a negative side. They relate to some object of desire. Desire means some felt deficiency; and every deficiency is painful. Desire thus makes for disharmony and restlessness. Our whole life is full of active and incipient desires, and it is therefore full of the pain of existence. When a desire is temporarily fulfilled, a state of painfulness is removed. This removal of pain is felt by us as an inner expansion and joy. There is nothing positive about it. The removal of pain does not add a value to our being. It merely leads to the re-manifestation of that joy which is natural to our inner being and which was hidden by desire. Real joy is therefore different from a bubbling joy or a joy that creates a new kind of restlessness. It is characterised by equanimity, poise and peace. It is a state of desirelessness. There is no enjoyer in it, and nothing enjoyed. It is the joy that more nearly approximates to the joy of non-duality.
The joy of Brahman is qualitatively different from all other joys. It has no negative side. It is purely positive. There is no desire and no fulfilment of desire. It is the joy of being. Being itself is bliss. There are joys which are the products of inner pressures and outer fortune. The bliss of Brahman is different from them all. It is the own nature of Brahman. To know Brahman is therefore to know It as blissful. If we presumably know Brahman, but do not feel the bliss of Brahman, it is not genuine knowledge of Brahman at all. Knowledge and bliss are here inseparable."
~Malkani
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