The ānanda-maya (Taittiriya Upanisad 2.5)
The last stage of evolution is the ānanda-maya, where one realizes his eternal relationship with the Lord. When the jiva recovers his original consciousness, his life of spiritual enjoyment is revived
Section 5: The ānanda-maya
The last stage of evolution is the ānanda-maya stage, where one realizes his eternal relationship with the Lord. When the jiva recovers his original consciousness, his life of spiritual enjoyment is revived. The foundation of this stage of eternal happiness is the Lord Himself, in His personal form, who is the object of affection. This transcendental stage of ānanda-maya is what Srila Prabhupada describes as Krsna Consciousness.
Text 2.5.1
vijñānam yajñam tanute, karmāṇi tanute’pi ca
vijñānam devāḥ sarve
brahma jyeṣṭham upāsate, vijñānam brahma ced veda
tasmāc cen na pramādyati, śarīre pāpmano hitvā
sarvān kāmān samaśnuta ititasyaiṣa eva śārīra ātmā, yaḥ pūrvasya
tasmād vā etasmād vijñānamayāt
anyo’ntara ātmā’nandamayaḥ, tenaiṣa pūrṇaḥ
sa vā eṣa puruṣavidha eva, tasya puruṣavidhatām
anv ayam puruṣavidhaḥ, tasya priyam eva śiraḥ
modo dakṣiṇaḥ pakṣaḥ
pramoda uttaraḥ pakṣaḥ, ānanda ātmā, brahma puccham pratiṣṭhā
tad apy eṣa śloko bhavati
Spiritual understanding (vijñāna) is the basis for the performance of sacrifice; all the sacred acts are performed thanks to it. All the devas worship this transcendental understanding as Brahman, the oldest. If a man knows vijñānam as Brahman, and if he does not deviate from it, he leaves all evils behind in the body and attains all his desires (on the transcendental platform).
The vijñāna-maya purusha is pervaded by another self, the ānanda-maya. The ānanda-maya has the form of a human, like the previous puruṣa. His head is pleasure (priya), his right side is joy (moda), his left side is delight (pramoda), his identity is bliss (ānanda), and his foundation is Brahman (the Lord Himself).
Commentary: What exactly does this vijñāna-maya stage of consciousness consist of? We can see that material civilization is based primarily on the first two stages, with intelligent people often reaching the third stage. The fourth stage, vijñāna-maya, is reached when one reaches the platform of spiritual understanding (vijñāna). This is the stage where one understands he is not the body or the mind, but the soul. In this stage one understands the temporality of this world and starts looking for what is eternal. Just like the previous verses teach us to see the Lord as food and prana, this verse teaches us to see this transcendental understanding as a form of the Lord, which can bring us back to our original, transcendental nature.
In the Bhagavad-gita, Krsna gives us an idea of how rare this stage is: manuṣyāṇām sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye. Out of many thousands of ordinary people, maybe one will endeavor for perfection. When one comes to the perfection of this stage, he reaches the beginning of the transcendental platform, the stage of liberation.
However, what is beyond the vijñāna-maya stage? One may endeavor for perfection, but what is perfection? How can it be found? This leads to the second part of the verse.
The last stage of evolution, the ānanda-maya stage, is where one realizes his eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord and attains the platform of eternal spiritual bliss. Both the Supreme Brahman and the fragmental spirit soul are blissful by nature. Both are spiritual by nature: full of knowledge, eternity, and bliss. The difference is that the Supreme Brahman never falls into illusion, while the infinitesimal jiva sometimes does. However, when a jiva recovers his original consciousness, his life of spiritual enjoyment is revived. Thus, the ānanda-maya stage is reached when one comes in contact with the ānanda-maya Person.
The characteristics of this stage are described as priya (the happiness of seeing the Lord), moda (the happiness of attaining the Lord), pramoda (the bliss obtained after attaining the Lord), and ānanda (spiritual happiness). The foundation of this stage of eternal happiness is the Lord Himself, in His personal form, who is the object of affection. This transcendental stage of ānanda-maya is what Srila Prabhupada describes as Krsna Consciousness.
He summarizes this whole section, starting from the anna-maya consciousness in the Krsna Book, chapter 87:
"Within the body there are five different departments of existence, known as anna-maya, prāṇa-maya, mano-maya, vijñāna-maya and, at last, ānanda-maya. In the beginning of life, every living entity is food conscious. A child or an animal is satisfied only by getting nice food. This stage of consciousness, in which the goal is to eat sumptuously, is called anna-maya. Anna means “food.” After this one lives in the consciousness of being alive. If one can continue his life without being attacked or destroyed, one thinks himself happy. This stage is called prāṇa-maya, or consciousness of one’s existence. After this stage, when one is situated on the mental platform, his consciousness is called mano-maya. The materialistic civilization is primarily situated in these three stages, anna-maya, prāṇa-maya and mano-maya. The first concern of civilized persons is economic development, the next concern is defense against being annihilated, and the next consciousness is mental speculation, the philosophical approach to the values of life.
If by the evolutionary process of philosophical life one happens to reach the platform of intellectual life and understands that he is not this material body but a spiritual soul, he is situated in the vijñāna-maya stage. Then, by evolution in spiritual life, he comes to the understanding of the Supreme Lord, or the Supreme Soul. When one develops his relationship with Him and executes devotional service, that stage of life is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the ānanda-maya stage. Ānanda-maya is the blissful life of knowledge and eternity. As it is said in the Vedānta-sūtra, ānanda-mayo ’bhyāsāt. The Supreme Brahman and the subordinate Brahman, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities, are both joyful by nature. As long as the living entities are situated in the lower four stages of life – anna-maya, prāṇa-maya, mano-maya and vijñāna-maya – they are considered to be in the material condition of life, but as soon as one reaches the stage of ānanda-maya, he is a liberated soul. This ānanda-maya stage is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā as the brahma-bhūta stage. There it is said that in the brahma-bhūta stage of life there is no anxiety and no hankering. This stage begins when one is equally disposed toward all living entities, and it then expands to the stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in which one always hankers to render service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This hankering for advancement in devotional service is not the same as hankering for sense gratification in material existence. In other words, hankering remains in spiritual life, but it becomes purified. Similarly, when our senses are purified, they are freed from all material stages, namely anna-maya, prāṇa-maya, mano-maya and vijñāna-maya, and they become situated in the highest stage – ānanda-maya, or blissful life in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The Māyāvādī philosophers consider ānanda-maya to be the state of being merged in the Supreme. To them, ānanda-maya means that the Supersoul and the individual soul become one. But the real fact is that oneness does not mean merging into the Supreme and losing one’s own individual existence. Merging into the spiritual existence is the living entity’s realization of qualitative oneness with the Supreme Lord in His aspects of eternity and knowledge. But the actual ānanda-maya (blissful) stage is attained when one is engaged in devotional service. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: mad-bhaktim labhate parām. Here Lord Kṛṣṇa states that the brahma-bhūta ānanda-maya stage is complete only when there is an exchange of love between the Supreme and the subordinate living entities. Unless one comes to this ānanda-maya stage, his breathing is like the breathing of a bellows in a blacksmith’s shop, his duration of life is like that of a tree, and he is no better than the lower animals like the camels, hogs and dogs.
Undoubtedly the eternal living entity cannot be annihilated at any point. But the lower species of life exist in a miserable condition, whereas one who is engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Lord is situated in the pleasurable, or ānanda-maya, status of life. The different stages described above are all in relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although in all circumstances there exist both the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities, the difference is that the Supreme Personality of Godhead always exists in the ānanda-maya stage, whereas the subordinate living entities, because of their minute position as fragmental portions of the Supreme Lord, are prone to fall to the other stages of life. Although in all the stages both the Supreme Lord and the living entities exist, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is always transcendental to our concept of life, whether we are in bondage or in liberation. The whole cosmic manifestation becomes possible by the grace of the Supreme Lord, it exists by the grace of the Supreme Lord, and when annihilated it merges into the existence of the Supreme Lord. As such, the Supreme Lord is the supreme existence, the cause of all causes. Therefore the conclusion is that without development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness one’s life is simply a waste of time."