33. sa yo manuṣyᾱṇᾱṁ rᾱddhah samṛddho bhavati, anyeṣᾱm adhipatiḥ, sarvair mᾱnuṣyakair bhogaiḥ sampannatamaḥ, sa manuṣyᾱṇᾱṁ parama ᾱnandaḥ; atha ye śatam manuṣyᾱṇᾱm ᾱnandᾱḥ, sa ekaḥ pitṛṇᾱṁ jitalokᾱnᾱm ᾱnandaḥ; atha ye śataṁ pitṛṇᾱṁ jita-lokᾱnᾱm ᾱnandᾱḥ; sa eko gandharva-loka ᾱnandaḥ; atha ye śataṁ gandharva-loka ᾱnandᾱḥ, sa eka karma-devᾱnᾱm ᾱnandaḥ, ye karmaṇᾱ devatvam abhisampadyante; atha ye śataṁ karma-devᾱnᾱm ᾱnandaḥ, sa eka ᾱjᾱna-devᾱnᾱm ᾱnandaḥ, yaś ca strotriyo’vṛjino’kᾱma-hataḥ; atha ye śatam ᾱjᾱna-devᾱnᾱm ᾱnandaḥ, sa ekaḥ prajᾱpati-loka ᾱnandaḥ, yaś ca śrotriyo’vṛjino’kᾱma-hataḥ; atha ye śataṁ prajᾱpati-loka ᾱnandaḥ, sa eko brahma-loka ᾱnandaḥ, yaś ca śrotriyo’vṛjino’kᾱma-hataḥ; athaiṣa eva parama ᾱnandaḥ, yaś ca strotriyo’vṛjino’kᾱma-hataḥ; athaisa eva parama ᾱnandaḥ, eṣa brahma-lokaḥ samrᾱḍ, iti hovᾱca yᾱjñavalkyaḥ. so’ham  bhagavate sahasraṁ dadᾱmi; ata ῡrdhvaṁ vimokṣᾱyaiva brῡhīti. atra ha yᾱjñavalkyo bibhayᾱṁ cakᾱra; medhᾱvī rᾱjᾱ, sarvebhyo mᾱntebhya udarautsīd iti.

What is happiness? We can imagine it to some extent, with our yardstick of measuring, different grades of happiness. If we possess all the valuables in this world we are likely to be happier than when we do not have these valuables. One can close one's eyes for a few seconds and imagine how immensely happy one would be if one owned all the valuables of the world. Generally, the ordinary man's concept of happiness is possession. He wants to possess things as much as possible. So, taking that to be the standard of judgment of the ordinary human mind, the Upaniṣhad says: let us imagine for a while that there is such a person. He is youthful and strong; he is the ruler of the whole world. We have never seen a ruler of the whole world at any time, but we can imagine it for the time being just for the purpose of explaining the maximum possibility of available happiness in this world. Take for granted that there is a very strong, youthful and learned person, learned in all the scriptures, acquainted with every branch of learning, highly educated, highly cultured, very youthful, never falling sick, very strong, king of the whole world. Such a person naturally must be a standard of happiness. He has nothing to grieve for and nothing is there that he lacks. He is the Emperor of the whole world. He has no enemies to fear, nothing that he lacks because everything has become his. He has no fear either from outside or from inside. He is physically well-placed, intellectually highly illumined, externally no fear exists for him and he possesses everything. Such a person's happiness can be regarded as 'one unit' of happiness. It is only a theoretical conception, because such a person does not exist in this world. But we can imagine that such a person exists, and even if such a person were to exist, his would be the smallest conceivable unit of happiness in our yardstick, according to the Upaniṣhad. It is the initial, kindergarten stage of the conception of happiness, one might say. This is the maximum our imagination ordinarily can comprehend, but it is only the minutest degree of happiness, according to the scale mentioned in the Upaniṣhad.

Sa yo manuṣyᾱṇᾱṁ rᾱddhah samṛddho bhavati, anyeṣᾱm adhipatiḥ, sarvair mᾱnuṣyakair bhogaiḥ sampannatamaḥ, sa manuṣyᾱṇᾱṁ parama ᾱnandaḥ: So, this is what can be regarded as the greatest happiness of a human being. But this is not the entire happiness, says the Upaniṣhad. There are entities far greater in happiness than this person. This imagined person, this so-called king of the world who has been described in such glorious terms, who will attract our attention, naturally, and be an enviable being to all persons - such a man's happiness is not the total happiness, it is only the lowest unit of happiness. There are people greater than this person. They are not in this world. They are in subtle realms of being. The universe is manifest in various degrees of intensity, and every degree is one world, each one being a separate plane of consciousness. Each plane is called a Loka, or a world. You do not know how many planes are there. There are infinite planes of being, and just as you have got frequencies of manifestation of electromagnetic energy, likewise there are infinite frequencies or levels of manifestation of the contents of the universe. The lowest is the grossest, which is the physical world. We are in the lowest form of existence, the grossest and the most material that can be conceived, and here it is we are imagining this kind of happiness. Higher than this is, according to this Upaniṣhad, the happiness of beings, subtler than this happiest human being that we have thought of in our minds. They live in a more transparent world. That is described here as Pitṛ-Loka. The scriptures refer to a realm of being where departed souls, highly virtuous in nature, reside. Pitṛ means ancestor, forefather, one who has departed from this world but has done greatest virtuous deeds and now lives in a highly comfortable realm which is superior to this physical world in every respect. The happiness of people in that realm is supposed to be one hundred times more than the happiness of this great man who is supposed to be the king of the whole world. Hundred times happier these people are because of the subtlety of their existence. Atha ye śataṁ pitṛṇᾱṁ jita-lokᾱnᾱm ᾱnandᾱḥ; sa eko gandharva-loka ᾱnandaḥ: Those who have performed highly virtuous acts and departed from this world and gone to this world of the forefathers enjoy happiness which is one hundred times greater than the happiness of the most happy person in this human world. But they too are not fully happy. There are people greater than these, subtler, more powerful, more happy. Who are they?

Atha ye śatam manuṣyᾱṇᾱm ᾱnandᾱḥ, sa ekaḥ pitṛṇᾱṁ jitalokᾱnᾱm ᾱnandaḥ: They are the celestial minstrels, the Gandharvas, who are supposed to be celestial musicians, who create, not the music that we think of in this world, but something much more superb. You will be transported by hearing such music. You cannot hear such music with these physical ears. They are supposed to be living in the borderland of the celestial world. They are called Gandharvas. They are the minstrels of the gods and they are subtler than these Pitṛs, or the forefathers. That realm is more comprehensive and internal. And so the Upaniṣhad says: The happiness of the Gandharvas is one hundred times more than the happiness of the inhabitants of the forefathers' world, whose happiness is one hundred times more than the happiness of the happiest of human beings. But these Gandharvas are not the highest. There are people greater than the Gandharvas. Who are these?

Atha ye śataṁ pitṛṇᾱṁ jita-lokᾱnᾱm ᾱnandᾱḥ; sa eko gandharva-loka ᾱnandaḥ: There are people who have done more intense virtuous deeds like the Aśvamedha, Rājāsuya, etc. and gone to the celestial realm. Those who have, by the effect of their intense merits in this world, gone to the celestial realm or paradise are called Karma-Devas. Devas who have reached that realm of paradise by virtue of Karma, or the good actions that they have performed in their previous life. Their happiness is still more, one hundred times the happiness of the Gandharvas. But greater than these, there are others too.

Ye karmaṇᾱ devatvam abhisampadyante; atha ye śataṁ karma-devᾱnᾱm ᾱnandaḥ: There are celestials who have been in that condition ever since creation. They were born as gods. They did not attain that state by actions in this world. The happiness of such people who are born celestials in paradise, the Ājānadevas, is one hundred times more than the happiness of those other celestials, the Karmadevas who have risen from this world by performing good actions.

Yaś ca śtrotriyo'vṛjino'kᾱma-hataḥ: Now the Upaniṣhad adds some adjectives. This is the happiness of a person in this world also, provided he is free from any kind of specific attachment, provided he is not clinging to anything in particular, and his mind is generally pervasive throughout the whole universe, provided he is not connected to anything in a personal way, has no desires for objects and whose understanding is superb, and further provided he is highly learned in the scriptures, free from afflictions of every kind, and free from all kinds of limiting desires. Such a person's happiness also is equal to those of the born celestials. You can have that degree of happiness even in this world itself. It is not like the happiness of a king. The king's happiness is a false happiness, because it is imagined in his mind only. It does not exist, really. It can be washed off in a second, if circumstances change. And you know very well how it can happen. So, that happiness of the emperor of the world is a stupid form of happiness. It is not a real happiness. But this happiness which is independent of any external aids such as are necessary for a king, for instance - such independent happiness is real happiness. That can be had in this world also by someone conforming to the description given.

Atha ye śataṁ ᾱjᾱna-devᾱnᾱm ᾱnandaḥ: In the Taittirīya Upaniṣhad there is a little change in the description of this portion. It does not suddenly jump to Prajāpati. It says: Indra's happiness is greater by one hundred times the happiness of the celestials. And the happiness of Brihaspati who is the Guru of the gods is still greater by a hundred times than the happiness of Indra. Greater than the happiness of Brihaspati is that of Prajāpati. Prajāpati is Hiraṇyagarbha Himself. His happiness is still more, a hundred times more.

Yaś ca śrotriyo'vṛjino'kᾱma-hataḥ; atha ye śataṁ prajᾱpati-loka ᾱnandāḥ, sa eko brahma-loka ᾱnandaḥ: Virāt, Hiraṇyagarbha and Īshvara - their happinesses are incomparable. Really speaking, we cannot multiply, mathematically or arithmetically, any amount of finite happinesses and equate them with the infinite happiness of Virāt, Hiraṇyagarbha, Īshvara. It is only a way of speaking. It is not merely an arithmetical total, but is qualitatively more intense. And in what way it is more intense qualitatively, we can imagine to some extent if we know what Virāt is, what Hiraṇyagarbha is, or what Īshvara is. Higher than all finite forms of happiness, whatever be that form of finitude, even the finitude of celestials, of the people in paradise, of Indra or Brihaspati, higher than all these forms of happiness is the happiness of this Cosmic Being whom we call Virāt, Hiraṇyagarbha, or Īshvara, designated here in the Upaniṣhad as 'Brahma-loka'.

Yaś ca śrotriyo'vṛjino'kᾱma-hataḥ: The Upaniṣhad says: You can have even that Hiraṇyagarbha's happiness here itself. You need not cry and wait. It can be had just now provided you can think as Hiraṇyagarbha thinks. Do you know how He thinks? It is impossible to imagine how He thinks, but we can at least try to stretch our thought and conceive a condition where such a thing would be possible. A total inclusion of particulars within one's own being and an exclusion of all externality from one's consciousness is perhaps an approximate definition of what Hiraṇyagarbha, or Virāt could be. If such a thought could be entertained by any person, that person can be as happy as Virāt Himself, or Hiraṇyagarbha Himself.

Athaiṣa eva parama ᾱnandaḥ, eṣa brahma-lokaḥ samrᾱḍ, iti hovᾱca yᾱjñavalkyaḥ: "O, Emperor Janaka," says Yājñavalkya, "this is the highest abode. I have described to you all that is necessary." "Master! I am immensely happy." This is what King Janaka says. "Great Sire! I give you one thousand cows." He has nothing else to give except cows again and again. This is very interesting. This is the life of our ancient people. Whatever be the teaching, he offers one thousand cows as Guru Dakshina again and again - so'ham bhagavate sahasraṁ dadāmi; ata ūrdhvaṁ vimokṣāyaiva brūhīti: "Tell me more." He is not satisfied. "Speak to me more about this path to liberation. I am awe-struck at the analysis of happiness which has been shown to me by your teaching. Speak to me more about this glory and the way to freedom, ultimate salvation. I want to hear more and more of this." Yājñavalkya says to himself: "This king is a very shrewd man. He is not going to leave me. However much I tell him he asks for more. He wants to extract everything that I have got in one day itself by putting so many questions." So Yājñavalkya felt a little intrigued. Atra ha yᾱjñavalkyo bibhayāṁ cakāra; medhāvī rājā: "This is a very shrewd man, this king. He is not leaving me easily. Medhāvī rājā, sarvebhyo māntebhya udarautsīd iti: He wants to extract every bit of my knowledge through his questions. He does not want to leave anything unsaid. Very good!"

Now, so much about the nature of the highest Perfection. So far, so good. But it is not so easy to reach. It is not possible to aspire for such a grand goal unless one becomes fit for that state of experience. The majority of people in the world are not fit for such experience, because the mind is not merely a monkey, it is something worse than that. It will never allow you to think in this way at any time. When you get out of the lecture hall, you are a different person in one second. You will not be thinking of these things then. It is quite natural. But it is a sad fact that a person cannot be continuously thinking one thought, even for a few seconds, on account of various types of harassments to which the mind gets subjected, partly due to its past Karmas and partly due to various other reasons. Whatever be the reasons, the consequence is the same, that it is not possible to entertain these kinds of thoughts for a protracted period. And so, injunctions have been given again and again that one who is whole-heartedly aspiring for such a grand goal, as the goal of life is, should be very meticulous and extremely cautious in seeing that the mind does not move out of the track; that it does not go out of range, as they say, and that it moves in the given specific direction in spite of its having to engage itself in the manifold things of the world. It is a hard job. Everyone knows how hard it is, but there is no other alternative. You cannot, as they say in an adage, take a bath in the ocean after the waves subside. The waves will never subside, so you will never take a bath if you wait. If you wait for the world to become better and then practise Sādhana, you will never do it because the world is never going to be better. The only alternative is to make the best of the present circumstances. So, Yājñavalkya's teaching concludes by saying that this is the highest teaching that he has given and that this teaching includes not only the description of the nature of the highest experience, but also a means of approaching it. You have to gradually rise from level to level by the expansion of consciousness, stage by stage as has been mentioned in the earlier sections of the Upaniṣhad. Whatever we have studied, right from the beginning of this Upaniṣhad, is nothing but the various stages of approach to this supreme goal whose climax, as it were, is mentioned here in this section, and there is practically nothing more to say about it.

If we are not able to entertain such a deep thought, if it is not possible for us to meditate like this, if it is hard for us to practise this kind of Sādhana for liberation and we cannot attain liberation in this birth, what will happen to us? That is what is now described. If you are not going to attain this realisation, if you cannot attain this experience, if you are not going to reach God, not going to attain the Absolute, what is going to be your fate? Now Yājñavalkya says:

34. sa vᾱ eṣa, etasmin svapnᾱnte ratvᾱ caritvᾱ dṛṣtvaiva puṇyaṁ ca pᾱpaṁ ca, punaḥ pratinyᾱyam pratiyony ᾱdravati buddhᾱntᾱyaiva.

The mind wakes up again into world-consciousness after going through the dream experiences. This waking up into world-consciousness is of two kinds. One is the experience we have when we rise up from dream and sleep, as mentioned. Every day we have this waking up into the world of objects. We go to sleep every day, we dream and go into deep sleep and we get up. The other kind of waking is rebirth. The condition through which one passes at the time of death is supposed to be something like the dream state. When a person is about to pass away from this world, his waking consciousness in the sense of his awareness of the sense-world, the consciousness of people outside and the feeling of the presence of things around, etc. etc. diminishes in intensity, gradually. He cannot think as other people think. Then he will be in a state of dream, as it were. Though it is of a different kind, yet it is supposed to be something like dream. It is not exactly similar to our normal dreams of daily life in every respect, in every minute detail, but it cannot be compared to any other state. It is a dream-like experience because it is not intense like waking perceptions of the world, nor is it a complete obliteration of consciousness like in sleep. It is not abolition of all feeling. There is some sensation. And they say, when you are about to pass away from this world, you have some perceptions of the other world also. You will begin to see certain things. The feelings will indicate where you are going. The other world will begin to reveal itself in some modicum. Just as when you cross the boundary of one country and enter into another country, you will see the police of this country as well as that country. This police will see what you are taking out of this country, and the other police will check up what you are bringing. Both will be seen. You have to be checked up by two kinds of police when you are crossing from one country to another country. Likewise, at the time of passing, the conditions of life in this world will be pulling you in the outward direction towards objects of this world, due to the attachments you had earlier. The love of body, the love of relatives, the love of wealth, the love of position, various types of loves - they pull the mind back to this earth, and so you feel a sort of unhappiness as you know these have to be left behind. Then there is the pull from above, which tells you, as it were, 'here your stay is finished, now you must come away'. That intermediate state through which one passes is said to be a kind of preparation for waking into another world altogether, which you call, ordinarily, rebirth. Rebirth does not necessarily mean coming back to this world. It is an awakening in any realm whatsoever, according to the nature of your desires, the actions that you performed in this world, etc.