' God-intoxicated State '...

Q: After the experience and the understanding of the oneness of all things, some people appear to be God-intoxicated or in a state of bliss. Some masters seem to be in that God-intoxicated state. Is that a stage? Is there anything you can say about that?

Ramesh: When the impersonal event of enlightenment happens, what the result of that event will be or how that body-mind organism will behave or what will happen through that body-mind organism after that event can be very different, of tremendous variety. So those who were talking and writing may stop writing and talking. Those who never did that may do it. And some don't do anything at all. Some may actually leave whatever they are doing and go into seclusion.

Q: What I'm talking about is, they seem to be in a state like rapture.

Ramesh: I have a feeling that that kind of rapture is probably of a very short duration. But again, these words carry a great misconception. There could be a sense of rapture, but it doesn't remain, it quiets down. A drug could produce that state of rapture, but it settles down. Frankly, bliss is a word which I don't particularly like because it creates a misconception. Real bliss is the absence of the wanting of bliss. That is the real bliss. Peace, tranquillity, are the words which I prefer. In fact, the enlightenment state is not wanting either bliss or anything else. It is total acceptance. That is the state



- Ramesh Balsekar