Ananda

Ananda: dedicated to fierce lovely Devi Katyayani
on the sixth day of Navratri.

We do not call the deep heart of meditation "contentment," but "bliss." And what Bhaktas mean by bliss cannot be understood by the intellect, or by comparing it to our relative states of mere happiness. Bliss is the energy that radiates through the void. It is not static passive stillness, but dynamic stillness, ever-expanding untrammeled stillness that churns with creative wonder, turning waves of silence into roaring photons of virtual energy. Bliss is the oceanic stillness that sweeps you away beyond the rim of the furthest star cluster. It is a clear empty blue sky that overflows, rains down the spine, rises from the hips to the top of the crown like a lightning bolt, soft and soundless as a garland of white roses. Yet the wild grace of ananda is no-thing at all. Ah, even less! Such an infinite paradox, such a union of opposites, is utterly astonishing. And this dumbfounded astonishment is bliss. It may begin as the inaudible Om hum, but it ends in a cry of Shiva! Shiva! Shiva! Durga Ma!