HOW TO HAVE JAY OUT OF LIFE

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HOW TO HAVE JOY OUT OF LIFE - 1

 

We had an earthquake, several years ago. Everyone was shaken. Pandemonium

prevailed. Some ran out of their houses: some shrieked in terror: some fainted.

Some grabbed their jewellery boxes. There was one – dear Sister Shanti

(Spiritual child of Sadhu Vaswani) – who was serene and unperturbed.

 

“Were you not afraid?” she was asked.

 

“No” she answered. “I felt happy to know that I have a God who can shake the world!”

 

There spoke a person who had the joy of life in full measure.

 

There is an amusing little incident in the life of St. Augustine. A man stood in

the market place where crowds had gathered from the countryside to purchase

things which they would take to their villages and sell to village-folk for a

profit. A man came forward and said at the top of his voice: - “Come to me and

I shall read your minds!”

 

The people gathered around him and, closing his eyes for a brief moment, he said

with an air of a prophet: - “All of you are thinking of buying cheap and selling

them at a higher rate. All of you are thinking of making profits.”

 

The people said: - “He is right! He is right!”

 

“He was not right!” said St. Augustine when the incident was related him. “He

was not right because there were many who did not have anything to buy or sell.

But if he had said, all of you want to have the joy of life, all of you want to

be happy (omnis vos beati esse vultis), he would have been right!”

 

True it is, that everyone wants to have the joy of life, everyone wants to be

happy. Since the dawn of civilization, man has searched for happiness. The

search has continued down the long corridor of time. Man has discovered that

pleasure leads to pain, riches vanish, fame is fleeting, success is an

illusion. How, then, is man to be happy? How is he to have the true joy of

life?

 

There is a story told us concerning three men. They were in quest of happiness?

Where is happiness? they asked. What is the secret of happiness? How may man

have the true joy of life?

 

The first man felt that happiness abided in pleasure. There is joy only where

there is pleasure. He pursued a life of pleasure. He was a wealthy man. He

built for himself a wonderful palace and filled it with treasures of art. He

lived a life of ease and luxury, ate rich foods and drank the choicest wines.

To his court came wise men from different parts of the world, for he enjoyed

their discourse. To his palace came great painters, musicians, artists. His

library contained the best and most beautiful books in the literatures of the

world. He met the world’s prettiest women, and the pleasure-seeking luxury of

his home became a legend.

 

As a young man, he found life supremely interesting: but as he grew older, he

discovered that within every pleasure was a seed of pain, that life given to

mere pursuit of pleasure was full of boredom. As he was about to pass away, he

confessed that despite pleasures and luxuries, his life was empty to the core.

It was a life not worth living. He had not found the true joy of life. He had

not found happiness.

 

Sometime ago, a young man met me. His father had died, four years earlier,

leaving twenty lacs of rupees to the young, and immatured boy. He took to a

life of luxury and softness. He gambled: he speculated: he ran after women: he

took to wine. Wherever he went, he was followed by a group of friends who

treated him as a prince. Within three years all his money was spent through. He

incurred debts. He had to sell his beautiful mansion, his stereos, his T.V.

sets, his cars, everything that he owned. He became penniless. No one cared to

look at him. This young man, who was followed by adoring friends wherever he

went, now felt all alone in this spacious, star-lit world. “There is no one to

whom I can go,” he said to me with tears in his eyes. “I am all alone! I have

not a roof where under to hide my head. My health is

utterly broken. I want to commit suicide!” In many cases, a life of

pleasure-seeking leads to suicide. Pleasure does not lead to happiness. Sooner

or later man realizes that there is no real, abiding joy in a life of pleasure.

 

Who was brought up in luxury more than Prince Siddhartha who, later, became the

Buddha, and showed to millions the way to true, abiding happiness? He was a son

of King Sudhodhana. The king built for his son three palaces in which the prince

lived during summer, winter and the rainy seasons. He had everything that the

world could give. But within his heart there awoke, again and again, the

question: - “Where is true, abiding happiness!”

 

Gautama was married to one of the most charming girls in the realm, - Princess

Yashodhara. A son was born to them. Gautama named him, Rahula. The word means,

“fetter’. Gautama said: “This son is a fetter: I want to be free! I want to set

out in the quest of happiness. Where is real, abiding happiness? Where is the

true joy of life?”

 

In the dark of the night, when all were asleep, Gautama quietly slipped out of

the palace. He became a wandering mendicant. In his heart was the question:

“What is the secret of happiness?”

 

Happiness, true happiness, is not in a life of pleasure. This is the discovery

made by the first man in the story. The second realized that pleasure was

transient, ephemeral, transitory. Pleasure is like a bubble that bursts. It is

an illusion, and it is unsatisfying. He felt convinced within him that

happiness could be found only by withdrawing into oneself, avoiding the world,

its trials and tribulations, and retiring into absolute solitude. He became a

hermit who had nothing to do with the world. No one could reach him: he sought

the company of no one. He, too, missed happiness. For life without human

companionship is barren as the sands of a desert. The hermit’s way is not the

road to the life abundant, - a life of joy and happiness.

 

-to be continued

 

(Written by: J P Vaswani)

 

TAMASO MA JYOTIRGAMAYA…..

 

Today do as much good as you can, to as many as you can, in as many ways as you

can, on as many occasions as you can.

 

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