Knowing True Happiness

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KNOWING TRUE HAPPINESS

 

Happiness means different things to different people. To some

money is happiness. To others happiness lies in fame, power, devotion

or something else. For certain persons happiness has come to mean

what it is not and what it cannot be.

 

There are four main sources of happiness-body, mind, money and

spirit. Physical happiness is attained by self-restraint, eating

simple, balanced and nourishing food and daily exercise. Mental

happiness comes from contentment, reading scriptures and good books

and keeping the company of godly people.

 

Material happiness comes from earning one's living by honest and hard

work, simultaneously increasing one's ability. Money thus earned

should be spent judiciously and some part of it should be given in

charity. A part of it should always be saved for the proverbial rainy

day. Spiritual happiness is experienced by universal love, selfless

service to society and spiritual sadhana.

 

A noteworthy point is that happiness thus attained cannot satisfy a

man beyond a limit. However a man may concern himself with the

happiness of the passing moment, there is an instinct in him, which

craves for pure, lasting happiness with no trace of sorrow.

 

Viewed in this light, the issue boils down to `being happy' as

opposed to `becoming happy'. Man cannot understand the nature of such

happiness, which is qualitatively and quantitatively different from

what happiness commonly stands for till he has known his own nature.

The difficulty is being happy is no so great as it is in knowing what

true happiness is. Its main cause is man'' ignorance. He thinks he is

body while actually he is spirit.

 

Man has to transcend his body consciousness before he is able to

realize that he is divine by nature. The opposite of "I am unhappy"

is not "I am happy, but, I am divine". This self-realization cannot

come overnight. It requires several years of dedicated meditation and

following the path of righteousness, dictates of one's conscience.

 

To sum up, happiness is a state of enlightenment and not of enjoyment

of sensuous pleasures. Pleasures and pain are two sides of the coin

and are passing phases. Let them come and go without being affected

by them. Always concentrate your inner reality, your divinity.

 

Maintain equanimity of mind under all circumstances. Whatever good or

bad happens in man's life is the result of his own actions but the

timing of the reaction (fruit) is so set under the law of the grace

of God that they accelerate his progressive human evolution. Nothing

can equal this grace of God.

 

However, people who do not understand its significance often accuse

Him of His delayed justice.

(Courtesy: The Tribune - January 17, 2002)