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, selflessservice 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 not 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)
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, selflessservice 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 not 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)
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