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”