Why Is Joy Inconstant, and How Does One Extend it?

It is first necessary to distinguish pleasure from joy. Pleasure may arise from the most insignificant, external factors, a sense impression, a lucky or fortuitous turn of events, or some passing vital response to a circumstance. Pleasure is a response of the surface being to something which has a positive impact for the body, the life-energy or the mind. It lasts while the stimulus that provoked it remains in place, or for some short period after the impetus has receded, as an ‘after glow’ effect. Pleasure is transitory by nature. At the same time, if the stimulus abides too long, it tends toward irritation and over-excitation of the senses and thus, can turn into pain or discomfort! Thus we experience an oscillation between pleasure and pain, between excitation and a state of dullness, as our surface nature reacts to and tries to modulate itself to the ostensibly pleasurable sensation.

Joy designates something deeper in the being, and stems from fulfillment of deeper drives or motivations of the being, such as those that emanate from the psychic being. It is thus more difficult for most individuals to connect with and continue to stay attuned to, unless and until they have forged a strong connection with the psychic being and its deeper sense of oneness with the divine Presence.

Depending on the Guna, the quality, that is predominant in an individual, the response and reaction to the impulse of pleasure and its receding will take on the characteristics of that Guna. Those who tend to have a rajasic temperament will try to fight to retain or regain the pleasurable sensation; while those who tend to fall into a tamasic state will generally experience some level of dullness or depression.

While this helps us to appreciate the vicissitudes of pleasure and the absence of pleasure, it does not directly address the question of that deeper joy that is the province of the psychic being. This too is subject to the play of the Gunas, amplified by the generally inconsistent connection between the surface nature and the psychic being. Until such time as that connection is secure and constant, joy will be inconsistent and variable in its expression in the being. 

A disciple inquires: ”Sweet Mother, sometimes when one feels depressed it lasts quite a long time; but when one feels a special kind of joy, it does not last.”

“Yes, that is very true.”

“Then what should one do to make it last longer?”

The Mother writes: ”But it is not the same part of the being that has the depression and the joy. … If you are speaking of pleasure, the pleasure of the vital is something very fleeting, and I think that in life — in life as it is at present — there are more occasions for displeasure than for pleasure. Pleasure in itself is extremely fleeting, for if the same vibration of pleasure is prolonged a little, it becomes unpleasant or even repulsive — exactly the same vibration.”

“Pleasure in itself is something very fugitive. But if you are speaking of joy, that is something altogether different, it is a kind of warmth and illumination in the heart, you see — one may feel joy in the mind also, but it is a kind of warmth and beatific illumination occurring somewhere. That is a quality which is not yet fully developed and one is rarely in the psychological state that’s needed to have it. And that is why it is fugitive. Otherwise joy is constantly there in the truth of the being, in the reality of the being, in your true Self, in your soul, in your psychic being, joy is constantly there. … It has nothing to do with pleasure: it is a kind of inner delight.”

“But one is rarely in a state to feel it, unless one has become fully conscious of one’s psychic being. That is why when it comes it is fugitive, for the psychological condition necessary to perceive it is not often there. On the other hand, one is almost constantly in an ordinary vital state where the lease unpleasant thing very spontaneously and easily brings you depression — depression if you are a weak person, revolt if you are a strong one. Every desire which is not satisfied, every impulse which meets an obstacle, every unpleasant contact with outside things, very easily and very spontaneously creates depression or revolt, for that is the normal state of things — normal in life as it is today. While joy is an exceptional state.”

“And so, pleasure, pleasure which is simply a pleasing sensation — if it lasts, not only does it lose its edge, but it ends up by becoming unpleasant; one can’t bear it long. So, quite naturally it comes and goes. That is to say, the very thing that gives you pleasure — exactly the same vibration — after a short while, doesn’t give it to you any longer. And if it persists, it becomes unpleasant for you. That is why you can’t have pleasure for a long time.”

“The only thing which can be lasting is joy, if one enters into contact with the truth of the being which holds this joy permanently.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 6, Some Answers and Explanations, pp. 206-208