Thought 112: Aananda is the absolute happiness (Continued)

Do you know that all rivers inevitably flow into the ocean; they are created that way. The rivers get their water through rains (from clouds, which form as result of evaporation of waters of the ocean) from the ocean and they flow back into the ocean ultimately. Our bodies are derived from food, which is derived from the earth and when the bodies die, they go back into the earth. This is the rule here – “Everything must go back ultimately into the source from which it originated”.

Worldly happiness is like the river waters. As a rule, all rivers flow into the ocean. The ocean, however, does not depend on outside sources of water for its existence - it has all the water it needs in itself. It is full by itself. It is majestic by its own right.

A river flows across many places and it may even change its course at times. Also, when there are severe rains, the river cannot contain itself within its normal boundaries – it overflows its boundaries and inundates the adjacent lands.

Unlike a river, the ocean has fixed boundaries and it never ever crosses its fixed boundaries; the ocean is virtually grounded. The ocean is always full. It is full before the rivers discharge their waters into it. It is also full to the same extent, even after the rivers discharge their waters into it. It never ever overflows its banks – no matter how many rivers discharge their waters into it, they fail to raise its level. The extra water gets absorbed quietly, without producing any change in its level - without causing any disturbance in it.

Also, the ocean does not dry up when the rivers cease to discharge their waters into it. It always remains calm and undisturbed – and full.

Like the ocean, the Jnaani (the man of wisdom) is always full. His fullness (which is the absolute happiness) does not depend on presence and absence of objects of this world. In him, desires get quietly earthed as they enter. Even if innumerable sense objects constantly pour their stimuli into his mind, they fail to disturb him; they get quietly resolved in his Buddhi.
Aananda is an experience one would gain when a person is with himself. For instance, when a desire is fulfilled, one is happy – and this momentary happiness is because of being with oneself. At that moment, a person is totally satisfied with himself – and he does not want to be something else (he does not want more happiness than that)
Aananda is the fundamental nature of all human beings. The objects, which seem to give some happiness or sorrow, do not possess the happiness or sorrow – they are merely instruments which give happiness or sorrow. When there are clouds, the sun is masked. When the winds drive away the clouds, the vision of sun is produced – but the sun has always been there. The wind has no role to play in this - other than being an instrument to remove the clouds. So it is with the absolute happiness. The worldly objects or the happy situations clear the gloom or the sorrow that is masking the happiness, which is always present in your self.

The next thought is about “Count your blessings and be happy”

Thought 112: Aananda is the absolute happiness (Continued)

You may not know this but the reason why you constantly seek something or the other is because you want to become more happy than what you are at present – which means that you always want to become full. We do not know that we are already the Aatma, which is eternally full. We think that we are limited beings. We feel that there is something missing in us.

Therefore, what do we do? We go out and buy a Lexus. We think that a Lexus is going to fill up the emptiness in us – and make us feel full. It does - but only for a few moments. Lexus brings its own unhappiness or anxiety with it. You begin to worry that someone would scratch it while it remains parked in a shopping mall. So you park it in such a way that no other car can be parked immediately next to it – by occupying two parking spots. But you cannot always get two parking spots together – and when that happens, the Lexus gives you a lot of anxiety, which is unhappiness. Very soon, the thrill of owning a Lexus melts away. Then, you go back to where you started before getting the Lexus. You now want something else. This time you think of a new thing to make you happy. You want to buy, for instance, a six bedroom house in Saratoga (California, USA). This also comes with its own anxiety.

But what you want is a happiness, a different kind of happiness than what a Lexus can give you - and which is abiding. This happiness is the absolute happiness. This absolute happiness is Aananda. It is Brahmaananda. This Aananda is fullness. If your nature is happiness, you do not become a happy person - you are already a happy person. Aatma is eternally happy - its very nature is happiness. “Aanando Brahma”. Happiness associated with the Aatma is forever; it is “Nitya”.

The next thought is about “Aananda is the absolute happiness (Continued)”

Thought 112: Aananda is the absolute happiness

Most of us need a reason to feel happy. Only a Jnaani (wise person) is happy without any reason - because he knows that his nature itself is happiness. He alone knows that happiness is no where outside you; it does not reside in money or in worldly pleasures or in worldly objects. On the other hand, you may be surprised to know that happiness, which has been eluding you all your life, is not far from you; it is right within you. Are you not staggered by this statement? You should be. Because happiness is right within you, you do not find it, when you look for it outside yourself. You are the happiness that you have been seeking all your life.

Sorrow appears in the mask of joy and joy appears in the mask of sorrow (Bhagavad Gita 18.37 and 18.38). The ignorant persons are misled by the masks. All the sorrow you experience in life pertains to your egoistic self (body-mind complex). Our real self is ever blissful. Sorrow is not our nature. Happiness is our nature. You are the “Aaanada” – and “Aananda” means absolute happiness or fullness. Absolute happiness, unlike the worldly happiness, is not conditioned by the state of the mind; it has nothing to do with the state of the mind. You continue to experience the Aananda – no matter what the state of your mind.

Bhagavad Gita (2. 29) says that you are the truth (Satya) of everything; you are the source of all happiness; you are the source of anyone’s happiness. Every creature in the world picks up small flakes of happiness (Aananda), all of which are from the original ocean of Aananda, which is you.

The next thought is about “Aananda is the absolute happiness (Continued)”

Thought 111: Worldly happiness (Continued)

If you say that a person is happy now, it refers to the worldly happiness set up by the predominance of Sattva in his mind, which diminishes inevitably after some time. Worldly happiness is a state of the mind. Whenever you are happy or peaceful, it is due to a thought in the mind, which is caused by the predominance of Sattva in the mind. This predominance of Sattva does not last long (No Guna of Maayaa predominates the mind for long). In other words, the happy feeling or thought set up in the mind by the predominance of Sattva, does not last long. Thus, if you think that you have become happy for the reason of acquiring something or getting rid of something, then, the feeling of happiness does not last long.

All progress in this world is directed towards one goal – which is that we want more and more happiness. We seek wealth because we think that more money gives more happiness. We seek objects of the world because we think that more happiness lies in them. We seek relationships, because we think that they give us more happiness. We seek power because we think that power gives us more happiness. When you contact the objects of the world for more happiness, they give you, no doubt, some temporary pleasure, but it does not last long; this pleasure is ephemeral – it comes and goes. Therefore, this kind of worldly happiness soon disappears plunging you into sorrow as usual.

The happiness that we get through the satisfaction of our likes and dislikes (likes and dislikes only appear disguised as desires for the worldly things) is low quality happiness. For a higher quality happiness, which is also known as the relative happiness (as opposed to the Absolute happiness), we have to first clean up our minds.

The basic ingredient of any happiness is peace of mind. Without peace, there is no happiness for any one. Therefore, first look for peace. A simple definition of peace is the absence of conflict in the mind. Peace or lack of conflict happens when the mind is pure; that is, when it is relatively free from impurities such as likes and dislikes, hatred, jealousy, arrogance, greed, selfishness, etc.

The next thought is about “Aananda is the absolute happiness”

Thought 111: Worldly happiness (Continued)

Sorrow or sadness cannot be our nature. If sadness were to be our nature, we would not feel bad when we are sad. But when sadness overtakes us, we want to get rid of it as soon as possible. Why? Because sadness is not natural to us. Happiness is natural to us. When we are happy, we do not want the happy feeling to go away at all.

All worldly happiness, however, is accompanied by some anxiety or the other – that is, it is always mixed with some unhappiness also. What you want is a happiness that is not accompanied by any anxiety; you want an unmixed happiness. Worldly happiness, however, is never unmixed; it is never meted out singly. If you want this kind of worldly happiness, you must be prepared to accept some unhappiness or some anxiety also.

There is no one - no one at all - who can honestly say that he always has unmixed happiness. Although every one would very much like to have unmixed happiness all the time, the reality is quite to the contrary. If you want happiness, you have to accept some measure of unhappiness. You cannot have the choice of rejecting the liabilities connected to a set of assets - and take only the assets. If you want the assets, you must be prepared to take on the liabilities attached to those assets too. That is the real world situation for you. If you want some pleasure, you must budget for some pain also. If you want some thing good, then, you must be prepared to take the bad thing also along with the good thing. That is the nature of all life on this planet of ours. These pairs of opposites are called the "dualities" of life in Vedaanta, (Hindu philosophy).

Human nature, however, is such that it is willing to take any amount of happiness, but it is not willing to accept even a small amount of unhappiness. One of Life's inviolable rules says however that if you do not want unhappiness at all, then, you cannot get happiness also. Happiness and unhappiness are dealt in pairs only – not singly. It is a package deal. You can either have both together or none at all. The choice, of course, is yours.

Since you cannot have happiness exclusively – if you want happiness, you end up, accepting a lot of unhappiness also. Who wants unhappiness! True. But if you do not want unhappiness, you will have to give up happiness also! This is not possible; neither is it practicable.


The next thought is also about “Worldly happiness (Continued)”

Thought 111: Worldly happiness

Everyone wants to be happy; no one, no one at all, wants to be unhappy. But do you know any one who is really happy! Happiness is generally conspicuous by its absence. Is it not amazing to observe that most people are unhappy most of the time – although they all crave to be happy all the time. The reason for people not being happy is simple; they do not have the know-how for happiness.

People have no concept of happiness. Most people think that pleasures are happiness. Bhagavad Gita says that (18.38) “pleasures, which are derived from the contact of your senses with their objects, are short-lived. They may seem like nectar in the beginning, but would turn out to be like poison later”. It is easy to derive these sensual pleasures - because they are purely perceptual. It is so easy that even an animal can pick up this kind of pleasures. You do not have to do much - and you certainly do not have to strain yourself for gaining this kind of pleasures. Pleasures like smoking, wine, women, drugs, gambling, etc, are addictive and for this reason, they debilitate you - by making you a slave to them. There are any number of examples of people, who ruined their lives, because they have not been able to apply the breaks in time – in the pursuit of such pleasures.

Power may get you many things, but it seldom gets you happiness. Take any powerful person, like Barrack Obama. Is he happy? He may have his brief moments of happiness, but most of the time, he is a harassed and unhappy individual. Lack of money causes misery – poverty is the worst thing that can happen to any individual. Money can get you many things but not happiness. Take any rich person like the queen of England. Is she happy? She may have her fleeting moments of happiness but most of the time she is a harassed and unhappy person. People think that buying a good car like a Lexus or a LCD big screen TV, etc, would give them happiness. Happiness does not inhere in these devices; they are after all pieces of inert material. How can they give you happiness? They con you into thinking for a brief period that they bring you happiness. But most of the time, they cause you a lot of unhappiness or anxiety; you are worried all the time that some one will scratch your expensive new car. If not that, you are worried that some clever thief would steal it.

One may have many things, but he or she is still unhappy, because he or she does not have some other things. People always want what they do not have and agonize over it – instead of feeling happy about what they already have.

The next thought is about “Worldly happiness (Continued)”

Thought 110: Changes in our quest for happiness

Changes are constantly taking place in and around us. We and the world that we live in, are in the space-time dimension - and it is the nature of the things in the space-time dimension to change constantly. Technology is changing – relentlessly. Our ideas also change continually. Our friendships change regularly. Even our enemies also change equally regularly. Our loyalties also change frequently. Our systems change all the time. Our standards also change frequently. Our life styles too change persistently.

Our children behave in a way that they are living in a world that is completely different from us; they dress differently; their music is completely different; their ideas for good living are completely different. Their friendships especially, with their opposite sex, are even more bizarre. Their views on happiness and marriage, professional behaviour, etc, are entirely different from their previous generation.

Our culture changes constantly. Our health changes constantly. Our wealth too changes rapidly. Our relationships change constantly. Our jobs change constantly. Our duties change constantly. The only thing that does not change is the “change” itself. Thus, “life comes at you too fast” - with all these changes. We complain constantly that everything around us is changing all the time. We complain because we think that we do not need these changes. At the same time, we always want others to change to make us feel comfortable – but we ourselves do not wish to change.

Dr Wayne Dyer says that “when you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at will change”. However, we do not wish to change; but we want others to change in a way to make us feel comfortable with those changes. This is because we want to feel good – forgetting all the time that others also want to feel good. Is there any one who wants to feel bad?

Thus, the problem is inside us, but we always look for its solution outside us. Therefore, whether we like it or not, we end up feeling bad all the time. When you feel bad, you develop resistance – which is a negative attitude. Negative attitudes result in sadness, anger, hatred, jealousy, arrogance, anxiety, worry, etc. This kind of internal conflicts, attitudes and thinking - generate obstacles to our progress and happiness.

Outside, you are always changing. You are helpless in this; this is not an option for you. Inside, you do not wish to change – because of your likes and dislikes.

The next thought is about “Worldly happiness”

Thought 109: About happiness (continued)

Man is always in a state of unhappiness and therefore, he is always in search of happiness. He thinks that sensual joys give him happiness but they do so only temporarily. Emotional joy is superior to the sensual joy. It is said that that emotions should be experienced, like medicines, in proper dosage to be effective – and most people would not know what the proper dosage is. Intellectual joy is even superior to the emotional joy. Spiritual joy is even better than any of these. Thus, the deeper you delve inside, the more superior is the joy.

All external conflicts take place only for finding internal happiness. People think that victories bring internal peace and happiness. This is ignorance, of course. When you put a thousand dollar bill and a piece of candy before a child, it invariably chooses the candy only – and never the thousand dollar bill. Mankind is equally childish – with crumbs of happiness that they seek and get. This is of course due to ignorance. People do not know that real happiness resides only in the inner core of their personality.

Pursuing worldly happiness is like pursuing the head of your shadow. The more you try the more it recedes. Instead catch your head. You have caught the head of your shadow.

Technology is supposed to bring happiness to the society. In spite of the amazing technological advances and their impact on the modern society, there is still a lot of stress, a lot of suffering, a lot of unhappiness, a lot of misery and a lot of sorrow everywhere. Thus, modern science and technology have not been successful in making man happy. Spirituality (Vedanta) alone gives the proper techniques for the art of good living. This art is to be learnt and practiced.

But the modern man unfortunately is not aware of such solutions. Even if he is aware, he does not appreciate their value; he does not believe that they can solve his problem. He still thinks that modern technology alone would solve his problem (of unhappiness) - and would not like to seek ancient remedies for such modern maladies. It is like giving a diamond ring to a monkey. What does the monkey do? It will bite the ring two or three times, finds it uninteresting - and throws it away!

Good management says that if you continue to do the same thing and yet expect a different result, it will not happen.

The next thought is about “Changes in our quest for happiness”

Thought 109: About happiness and unhappiness

There is a lot of unhappiness in this world - that is for sure. People seem to be strangely courting unhappiness and not happiness. I started looking a little more closely into this hypothesis, some years ago.

I found that most people go through life in bewilderment. They really do not seem to know what they want. They have no idea why they are doing what they are doing. They lack the direction and purpose - not because they do not like direction and purpose, but mostly because, they never thought about them. Even if they think about them, they probably would not know how to proceed further. They "run" their lives - not manage them.

I lived in a certain segment of history and my children are going to live mostly in a different segment. My views and experiences were the products of the period of history and society known to me. The economic conditions, the political scenario, the educational system, the culture, the traditions and moral values to which I was exposed, determined the forces and compulsions, which made me what I am. The next generation will be exposed to a different set of forces altogether; the advances in systems and technology in their life times may impose compulsions of a totally different nature on them. My experience and views, when extrapolated into their segment of history, may or may not still retain their validity and relevance. I believe that relevance takes precedence over continuity (tradition).

A person has several interests in his life - social, intellectual, emotional and moral pursuits - in the physical plane. When he is satisfied by his experiences in the physical dimension, he looks for satisfaction in the higher dimension - what Maslow calls "self actualization". Until this happens, the human being will continue to explore the physical dimension of his existence – for more and more satisfaction.

The next thought is “About happiness (continued)”