PLEASURE BORNE OF SENSE OBJECTS IS DUE TO DELUSION

Question- If the Self is always pleasing and so are sense-objects at the time of enjoyment, let them also be regarded as pleasing.

Shri Ramana Maharshi answers-

The delight in any object is not lasting but what is now delightful soon yields its place to another more so. There are degrees of pleasure and succession of the objects liked. The pleasure in objects is only wanton and not steady. This is possible only if the pleasure is born of one's own delusion and not of the intrinsic value of the objects. For example, see how a dog chews a dry, marrowless bone until blood comes out of the wounds in its mouth, fancies that the taste of its own blood to be that of marrow of the bone and will not part with it. Should it find another similar bone, it drops down the one in its mouth and takes the other. In the same way, superimposing his own joyful nature on the detestable objects of fancy, the man delights in them by mistake, for joy is not their nature. Owing to the ignorance of man the objects which are really painful by nature seem to be pleasing. This seeming pleasure does not remain steady in one object but often shifts to other objects; it is wanton, graded, and not absolute, whereas the Joy of the Self is not captious.Even when the body etc., are cast off, this joy endures in the Self for ever; it is also absolute. Therefore the Self is Supreme Bliss. So far the Being-Knowledge-Bliss nature of the Self has been established.

- Advait Bodh Deepika(by Sri Ramanashram)