THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS
The desire for Happiness motivates all creatures to act.
Whether it is a tiny little ant or a human, every child of God is constantly busy looking for joy, peace and happiness. While laughing, eating, sleeping, walking, playing, getting an education or working, we are in fact, like rivers flowing incessantly towards the oceans, striving to be happy.
The scriptures reveal that, being fractions of God, who is otherwise known as Bliss or Perfect Happiness, we cannot help but desire to be happy. This desire comes to us as naturally as breathing.
Since happiness is synonymous with God, it has the same nature as God.
It is limitless and eternal.
If it is limited, if it fades with the passage of time, if it is overshadowed by sorrow, it is not happiness.
Being naive, we think a person, a place or an object to be the source of happiness.
Many believe that if they live in a certain house, in a certain neighborhood or in a certain country, happiness will come to them.
A man gets married and fully believes his wife will make him happy.
A couple feels that a child will bring them joy and satisfaction.
A poor man sincerely believes that money will make him happy.
A millionaire is unhappy because he is not a billionaire, and the billionaire is working feverishly to become the richest man in the world.
But my beloved Guru, Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj, explains that happiness which is attained through people, places, money and things decreases and keeps on decreasing until it comes to an end altogether. According to the scriptures, we must do two things in order to be happy: Are we really satisfied now?
Are we happy?
Yes, but only for a while.
A little child once asked me, Why do I get tired of my toys after a while? This is the second point. In other words, form a loving relationship with God, who is the source of unlimited happiness.
Once, a devotee was speaking to God, "My Lord! You have so much work to do. Taking care of the entire world must exhaust you by the end of the day. Come and put your feet up. I will give you a relaxing massage. You must be hungry, my friend. Let me get some fruits for you to eat. Allow me to pluck the thorns out of your sandals." God was pleased with the innocent words of the devotee. Happiness lives within us, and we live within happiness.
The Human mind is like a fertile garden, whatever you plant in it will grow. "What do you plant in the mind?"
Imagine for example, you love the game of baseball. Depending on the strength of your love for the game, so will your thoughts be. The more you love it the more you will think about it. This in turn means that you will attract friends who love the game, you will constantly talk about baseball, regularly go to the park to watch and be glued in front of television enjoying it. You may dream of the game, even also collect baseball cards and so on. In other words, a great percentage of your awareness will be focused on baseball.
From this we can understand that our consciousness is made up of whatever we 'plant' in it. Our consciousness is made up of thinking- past and present. Now we can understand that in addition to thinking, there is also a law of association, which comes into play. And the quality of the association influences the quality of our mind. So now an important distinction is evident. Not only is our consciousness made up of how we think, but the quality of our consciousness also depends upon the quality of the subject on which we are thinking. And the quality of consciousness determines how we feel about ourselves. The Vedic literature of India explains that the individual consciousness is made up of three qualities combined. These qualities are called gunas (a Sanskrit word) and they bind the soul to the wheel of birth and death. All of us at all times embody within ourselves these three qualities - no one is exempt. However the percentage of manifestation varies not only from person to person but within the individual him/herself. You can witness such dramatic changes within yourself when, for example, you are queuing for a ticket to a movie. You may be feeling peaceful and happy. But suppose someone violently shoves you out of the line and tells you to get to the back since they have decided to take your place! What happens to your peacefulness now? Similarly, throughout the day we experience variations in our attitudes. These shifts either stem from a natural change of the gunas internally, or the change is stimulated by external events. The Masters of India advise us that it is the mean average of these three qualities which make up an individuals personality. In other words, if it where possible to measure the shifts of the percentage of these three qualities in combination over say one year, we could then find the average - that average could be determined as the 'usual' personality of the individual.
When describing a person, we say 'oh he is a gentle, kind man'. Or 'he's a shocker - full of violence, anger etc.' but we know that even a gentleman can be violent and that a violent man can sometimes be gentle. Now for the main point. When we become emotionally involved with another person we absorb their qualities of consciousness - ie. whatever their average percentage of the three gunas may be. The deeper the emotional attachment for another person, the greater is the absorption of their qualities. All of this leads us to the secret of God-realisation.
The Masters, Saints and Sages of the world advise that we are on a Divine quest, seeking to embody the qualities of selflessness, pure love, compassion and wisdom - which are synonymous with God and realised Masters alone. If we wish to embody these qualities in ourselves and realise our full potential, we must learn to associate our mind (meditate) on the subject who has these qualities - that is God and a true Spiritual Master.
God and Realised Saints are gunateet, which means 'beyond the three gunas - white, red, black'. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna states,
Godly bliss, on the other hand, keeps increasing with every moment that passes.
To attain True Happiness, we must first understand who we are.
We are a combination of the mortal body and the immortal soul. For the sake of the body, God has provided us with the world, and He has pervaded each particle of His creation for the benefit of the soul.
The body is material, whereas the soul is divine. Both need their respective nourishment.
The body, comprised of five material elements--ether, air, fire, water and earth--needs the world in the form of clothing, air, sunshine, shelter, food, water, etc.
The soul, a divine fraction of God, which needs to be fed also.
The food for the soul is the Supreme Soul, which has many names, such as God, Paramatma, Ishvar and Bhagavan.
Just as ignoring the needs of the body leads to poor health and disease, in the same way, depriving the soul of its nourishment results in unhappiness and dissatisfaction.
limit our material desires and form a loving relationship with God.
Let us take up the first point. Television ads would have us believe that all we need to get rid of stress is to go on a shopping spree or take a holiday on some exotic island in the Caribbean.
Lottery ads do their best to convince us that all our problems will end once we are millionaires. Many Advertisement suggest that we cannot be happy without wearing designer jeans or the latest Purfume.
We never seem to have "enough" material goods.
A teenager has a closet full of clothes, but says she has nothing to wear. A man drives a good vehicle, but has his eye on a fancy sports car. A woman lives in a perfectly good house, but feels it is not big enough.
All right! The teenager gets a new outfit, the man is now driving a sports car, and the woman buys a bigger house.
The outfit loses its charm in a few days, the car gives the man problems, and the woman is still not satisfied.
Please think!
Is this not your experience also?
It is our gross misconception that material objects can give us lasting happiness.
When I get a new toy, I play with it all day, but a few days later, I don't have fun playing with it any more."
We must ask ourselves the same question.
The world we live in is full of five kinds of toys:
toys that look good, toys that sound good, toys that smell good, toys that are nice to touch and toys that taste good.
We have seen, heard, tasted, smelled and touched so much, but we still remain dissatisfied.
What should we do now?
Do what a little child does, put the toys away and cry for the mother.
To love God, you do not need to learn Sanskrit. All you have to do is to spend some time alone with your Creator every day to communicate with Him.
Talk to Him as you would to a friend.
He will be pleased with your prayer that comes from the heart.
To get in touch with happiness, we must strive towards leading a balanced life. Scriptures recommend six hours of sleep every night, which leaves us with 18 hours.
How many hours are you devoting to the material body and how many to the soul?
Discipline yourself.
Budget your time.
Devote time to God every day.
Live a balanced life, and you will find the happiness you have been seeking .
The answer is, "Whatever you focus on." Think about it carefully. The mind is like a powerful magnet - wherever it is directed it attracts accordingly.
We have the freedom to decide what we plant, but on whatever subject we focus the mind, it is bound to absorb the qualities surrounding that subject.
If, for example, we associate the mind with qualities of misery, anxiety, jealousy, etc. then the mind will absorb those qualities and eventually you will experience the same.
It affects the decisions we make - which in turn influences our present and future.
They correspond to the colours white, red and black.
White signifies peacefulness, spirituality, harmony, kindness etc. and is known as sattvic guna.
Red signifies passion, activity, and desire for power and success - and is known as rajasic guna.
Black signifies violence, inertia, laziness, negativism, evil etc. and is known as tamasic guna.
For example, at any given time a person may manifest 50% white, 30% red and 20% black. Then just a few minutes later these percentages may have shifted to 23% white, 60% red and 17% black. This accounts for the mood shifts we often experience.
It quickly evaporates and instead you may become enraged, or fearful.
The main thing to understand is that we each embody these three qualities but that their strength continuously varies within ourselves.
This is all due to a shift in the gunas, which are influenced by our past and by what we are doing with our mind in the present.
For example, if you love a person and he or she is kind hearted then that quality would rub off on you. If he/she is a liar and cheat etc. then by constantly thinking about him/her you are in danger of losing your morality too.
We are not Divine yet, because we are governed by the gunas. Thus to deeply think about another person, no matter how pious they may be, cannot liberate one from the three gunas or the cycle of birth and death, bringing God realisation. Instead it ensures rebirth within the arena of the three gunas. To deeply think on God and Master ensures liberation and experience of the Divine qualities. This is the reason why the Masters and Scripture advise meditation on God.
It is the secret of secrets, pure and simple.
"Meditate on Me, merge your mind in Me, let your understanding be in Me, love Me and you will surely come to Me."