The Pursuit of Happiness
The sole search of every being is happiness. Whenever one is searching, whatever one is searching, one is looking for happiness —whether it is spiritual or material, whether it is in the movies, bars, or in the church or temple; whether it is winning a war, earning more money, getting famous, having more power, or sex. The search simply is for happiness. And here is the secret — the Divine is all happiness and bliss. The Divine wants you to be happy. God wants to see you full of enthusiasm, joy, compassion, and happiness. But we keep postponing our happiness.
An adolescent thinks he will be happy when he goes to college. Once in college, he thinks he will be happy when he starts earning. Then he thinks he will be happy once he is married. Once he is married, the desire is to have children. Once children are born, then you want them to grow up well for you to be happy. The story goes on, and that special day never arrives. All of one’s life is spent preparing to be happy someday in the future. It is like making a bed all night but having no time to sleep. Instead of preparing to be happy all the time, let us make our conscience happy now and remain naturally happy, like children are.The Divine is trying His best; He has created so many things for us to be happy. But God only helps those who help themselves. So every day make a resolution: “Today, I am just going to be happy, come what may. I will not let anything disturb my happiness. I am going to be
content, happy now. I will not plan for happiness in the future.”
If you observe the nature of our future plans, you see that you plan to enjoy, celebrate, and do things that enhance your happiness. Nobody plans to be miserable. All our plans are to enjoy and uplift the spirit. Then why do we want to postpone it for tomorrow? Why do we not do it now? Misery needs a hook or a reason to exist, but happiness does not need a reason.
Happiness is our true nature. It is the state of our being when there is neither stress nor wants. There is a scientific study that says a baby smiles a few hundred times a day, and the number of times an adult smiles is in double digits. We need to ponder on this-what is it that takes away this natural gift of humanity, this smile from our faces?
‘Santosha’ or contentment enhances happiness. Contentment is not a natural tendency in adults; one has to practise it. Being unconditionally happy is a practice. “Come what may, today I am going to smile. Everything is going to vanish and disappear, so what? Let me at least be happy.”
As children, we did not have to practise it because contentment was our very nature. We were content when we had our food, good sleep, and some toys to play with. But as we grew up, we moved away from it. And so contentment has to be practised now.
Knowing the two types of happiness can also help uplift your spirit. There are two types of happiness. One is how we feel when we receive something. When we get a compliment, we feel happy. When we get a gift, we feel happy. This type of happiness is infant happiness. We were born with this type of happiness. Every child loves to receive gifts. But we cannot remain here forever.
There is another level of happiness-the happiness of giving that we find in our grandmothers or mothers at home. What do we see? When children come home for holidays, mothers prepare many dishes, and their joy is to feed their children. Mothers and grandmothers may not even get to eat it, but it does not reduce their happiness. So there is happiness in giving, contributing, and sharing. We all have to graduate from the happiness of receiving to the happiness of giving. The joy of giving is a mature joy. It lasts for a long time. It makes society a divine society.
We need to focus more on our mental and spiritual happiness than on the worldly or social kind. Happiness can be experienced at three levels. One is happiness in society, in the environment. This is what everybody thinks happiness is — to derive happiness from others in society. But that is a limited and temporary sense of happiness. How would you feel in a place where everybody around you thinks only about themselves? Do you like to be in such a group where there is no sharing, no sense of belongingness, and no happiness? Again, here we need to come from a space of belonging and sharing.
The second is the happiness of one’s mind. When one accepts people and situations as they are and moves in knowledge, then happiness blossoms in the mind.
The third level is the happiness of the soul. This level of happiness dawns upon us when the soul is united with the Divine. When the soul is united with the entire cosmos, then we experience ultimate happiness. When there are no two, in deep meditation, we experience the deepest happiness.
The Divine has given you all the small pleasures in the world but has kept bliss to Himself. Once you receive bliss, then everything else is joyful. Without bliss, any joy in the world does not stay.
All the three levels of happiness are interlinked. When you are totally united with the Divine, you cannot but experience one hundred per cent fulfilment on the second and the first levels. Then you cannot but serve society because everybody becomes part of you and part of the Divine. When you start serving and stop overthinking all the time about yourself, mental satisfaction dawns naturally. The mind also feels happy and relaxed, and it creates such a joyous environment around you.
Service is a way to achieve happiness. I keep telling parents to help children inculcate the attitude to serve. For example, parents should give them things and ask them to distribute them. Children have a natural tendency to share. It must be encouraged. Tell them to go and serve food to others so that the sense of service and community will grow in children.
If we think only about ourselves-me and mine, “What will happen to me?” — the mind shrinks. Whenever the mind shrinks, it is bound to bring unhappiness. And when the mind expands, it brings joy. The art of pursuing happiness is to expand our perspectives, serve, and live in expanded consciousness. Happiness and contentment are right within us. All you need to do is just relax and go within.
