All conscious activity, whether in the course of duty or in defiance of duty depending upon the individual temperament is regulated by what Freud called the “pleasure principle.” Few will argue the fact that whatever action a living entity does, he does to produce a certain amount of pleasure in his life. With this in mind, we would like to consider what the highest form of pleasure the ultimate state of conscious existence may be.
From the teachings of Lord Krishna in The Bhagavad Gita As It Is, we learn that the relationship we have with Nature is maintained through the five senses of seeing, tasting, touching, smelling and hearing. This relationship is kept under control by the mind and intelligence, and it is kept in perpetual motion by desires for pleasure. This means that if one has a desire, say for a particular type of food, by his intelligence he can decide how to obtain that food, and through the mind one then sets his senses in motion to get the wanted morsel: the ears to hear of where it maybe, the nose to smell it, the eyes to see it, and the fingers to bring it to the mouth where the tongue can taste it. Doing this, one is satisfied for some time and finds himself in a state known as pleasure.
If, however, there is some desire which the senses are not able to obtain, or for some reason one’s surroundings cannot supply what one longs for, then one finds oneself in a state known as displeasure or misery. So, pleasure can be described as that condition where sense desire is fulfilled, and misery as one where it is not. It logically follows, then, that the highest state of pleasure is where the senses can be fully satisfied all the time.
For this state of pleasure to be obtained, two things are necessary a body or set of senses able to obtain the desire, and surroundings that can constantly supply what is desired. Man has always been working towards these two goals: to have a perfect body set in perfect surroundings. What keeps him working so hard in this direction, of course, is the fact that his present body and surroundings are incapable of producing for him a constant state of pleasure. We should now wonder why our bodies and environment cannot bring us this state.
The great minds of science teach us that everything in the universe is composed of units of energy which they call atoms. This is true of both our bodies and our surroundings. Biologists tell us that the cells in our bodies are always dying and that new cells are always being born to replace the ones that fail. In this way, all the cells in the body are replaced every seven years. This can be noticed as a baby turns into a young boy, who turns again into a young man. At the end of life this same person has the body of an old man, and soon after that, after death, there is no body left at all.
The environment of the living entities is made up of matter which is also changing. Man’s surroundings are his house, his clothes, his food, his associates, his job, his philosophy, his country and so on. A man may get some enjoyment from these objects, but what if his house burns down, he loses his job, he has no food, or some other equally depressing calamity occurs? Then he finds himself in a state of misery unless or until he can adjust to the circumstances.
Adjustment is the main business of the human being. To be in a state of pleasure he must constantly adjust to his own changing tastes as much as to his changing environment. Always his mind and body are changing and always his environment is changing. What chance, then, is there for him to ever find permanent pleasure in this world?
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