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42 the idea. All desire to exist permanently (Sat). But if we were given eternal existence without the consciousness of that existence, we would reject that. For who is there that would embrace existence in sleep? None. We all want conscious existence. Furthermore, we want Blissful Conscious Existence. We want Satchidanandam—that is God. But for a pragmatical consideration only we emphasize the Blissful aspect of God and our motive for Bliss, leaving out two other aspects—Sat and Chit, i.e., Conscious Existence. Also other aspects of Him are not dwelt on here.

Now, what is God? If God be something other than Bliss, and His contact produces in us no Bliss, or produces in us only pain, or if His contact does not drive pain away from us, should we want Him? No. If God is something useless to us, we want Him not. What is the use of a God who remains always unknown and whose presence is not inwardly manifest to us at least in some circumstance in