How to Obtain Real
Happiness in This Life
May 31, 2003
Seminar at Sugar Creek Banquet Hall
By Dr. Prem Shridhar
Acharya, Arya Samaj Greater Houston
Mahabharata the great epic declares
“nothing exceeds the excellence of man.” Man is superior because of his
intellect and understanding being a combination of body, mind, intellect and
soul.
The topic for this seminar is very
interesting and timely, before I share my views, I
would like to compliment and congratulate the organizers of this seminar for
the appropriate subject they have selected for discussion. It is my pleasure
and privilege to participate on this occasion and I thank all of you for having
given this opportunity to be with you at this moment and listen
the great-saint Srilla B.V. Naryan
Maharajaji.
This topic has three important words
“real”, “happiness” and “life”
and every word has its philosophical
meanings thus a different concept by different people, it can be subjective and objective both. Thus it has
presented a great dilemma before me to discuss the topic but from which point
of view. I can’t judge the perception you have in your mind about these three
words. Therefore, I am only expressing my thoughts as a humble student of
philosophy, so whatever is acceptable to you, will be the better option. For
example, if we are passing through a street and there is darkness, a piece of
thick rope lying on the way can be a snake for us.now, this is an illusion
and delusion both. Rope is the reality but snake unreality. Thus,
a delusion. In the presence of light that delusion goes away and we come
to know the real. Like wise happiness is some thing abstract that can be felt
only, it can be on a physical, mental, and spiritual level too. At the physical
level it is only sensuous pleasure, at mental level it is only a state of mind
and at spiritual level it is known as bliss. It can only be felt by the soul
but cannot be properly expressed in words. So far as the life is concerned it
has also different meanings for different people according to their attitude
and learning. To me it is a kind of transaction while we are alive and
transmigration after our death. The very purpose of this
life, which is just a span of period right from birth to death, is the
transformation. With our birth as human beings we get this opportunity
according to our deeds, to which we call the destiny in the worldly sense.
Nobody in this world wants to be
unhappy at any level because our whole life is motivated by the inevitable
impulses: repulsion from sorrow and craving for joy. All of us avoid and
discard all that is undesirable and disagreeable in our day to day life and run
after all that is enjoyable and agreeable. We engage ourselves in an endless
pursuit of all that gives us happiness. Our general concept of happiness today
is to crave for all the worldly objects which bring with it unlimited
possession, position, power, praise, and pleasure without knowing the fact that
all these five “P’s” snatch way the real one “P” that is “Peace”. Thus to which
we consider real becomes “unreal” all the root cause of our miseries and
sufferings. Swami Vivekananda used to say very often. “Our unfulfilled desires
and discontentment are the root cause of all our unhappiness and sufferings
both these being absent we can be liberated and feel the real joy in this life,
even in this physical being.” A millionaire can be in the state of misery and
unhappiness while a farmer with no comforts in his life can be happy in a
thatched hut. You know well Shakespeare asserts “all that glitters is not
gold”. Happiness is a subjective phenomenon. Psychologically it is a state of
mind. Mind when agitated, in fear, doubt, anxiety, uncertainty, is full of all
sorrow and unhappiness. When in tranquility, it experiences all joy, peace, and
happiness. Thus it depends on the condition of mind.
Man is combination of body, mind,
intellect and soul. Adi Shankracharya
asserts in his text Vivekchudamani “ For all beings, mind alone is the cause for bondage and for
freedom.”
Yogvasishitha declares “ Man ev maushyanam karanam bandha mokshyoh''
It is the mind mudded with agitations for
unfulfilled desires and discontentment that binds man of his passion for
experiences. Thus, the enemy is never out in the open; it is within; it comes
out and attacks. What we really need is to evaluate and properly regulate the
mental conditions. Never-never forget this fact and reality that happiness
which you are seeking is right under your nose – within you. What you are
seeking out in the worldly acquirement is nothing but the physical comfort,
which are temporary, unreal. Only pleasures felt by
the sensory organs. It is all deceptive, irrational, and unreal. Therefore, if
you are in search of real happiness in your life, the spiritual practices are
the only means to come back to the Divine bliss and real happiness.
We live in the past and are always
worried about future, but you know past is a history and future is a mystery.
We should only learn a lesson from the past for future life. We should always
live in present, which is the reality. Present is the real, this moment is the
real. But we either roam in dead past or in future which is unknown. We always
dream for future, when our dreams do not materialize, we feel disappointed and
distressed. Thus, the greatest reason for our unhappiness.
Sometimes, few persons even end their valuable and beautiful life by suicide.
Another thing I would like to mention
here is the paradox of our time. Recently a souvenir published by
“We have more degrees, but less sense;
more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but fewer solutions; more
medicines, but less wellness; we have multiplied our possessions but reduced
our values; we’ve learnt how to make a living, but not life; we have added
years to life, not life to years.”
How
true are the above lines for the man, that tell us the
reason for all our unreal and unhappy life.
The
next thing I would like to stress here is “Expect nothing from anyone and also
ignore none.” As by doing so you are buying distress and tension both for
yourself. This is the key to happiness.
Always ask yourself, you want pleasure
without memory, pleasure without understanding, pleasure without consciousness.
If so, you are mistaken and totally wrong. You can never attain the real
happiness, you are searching for.
Money can buy for you the medicine not
health; books not knowledge, food not appetite, bed not sound sleep, arms not
bravery, a house not home. The big tragedy with us is that we are living in
houses not in homes. The day we start living in homes, we shall be happy. A
house is just a rest house, guest house, coffee house, warehouse not a home. It
is in fact the home where we need to live and say proudly “my home, my sweet
home”. So start living in homes, instead of houses. We are in fact hankering
for a life that is unreal. I don’t disapprove, curse or reject the scientific
advancement and all the human worldly comforts that are the result of great
search of the scientists. They are all welcome in our life but we should enjoy
them all only as means and not as ends. Vedas exhort us: “Ten tyakten bhunjitha” - Yajurveda 40.1
Enjoy this world but with the
sense of renunciation. Science and technology have brought marvelous means of
communication, conveyance and all sorts of comforts in day-to-day life. Man has learnt how to fly in the sky, reach the moon, and send
missiles at a pointed place but failed utterly to learn how to live on Earth
with peace and harmony.
What we need is wealth with wisdom. Science with spirituality. Material
prosperity with mental poise, awakening with faith in God and humanity.
Hands, heart and head need to be harmonized. Greater the
harmony, better the happiness. Hands are given to us to help and heal
not hurt and harm. They are given to us to save not to slaughter, to bless not
to butcher. Hearts are given to us not for lust but to love not for cruelty,
but for compassion, not for hate but for all humbleness and sense of humanity.
But the difficulty is for selfish motive and worldly happiness that is unreal, we are misusing the opportunity of life. We have the
guided missiles, but misguided minds. In our Upanishads we have a prayer:
Lead
me from unreal to real, from darkness to light, and from mortality to
immortality. This is the way to real happiness. Let our thoughts, words and
actions be one. A proper harmony in our physical, mental and
spiritual life. True and real happiness can only be achieved with true
knowledge, faith in the Divine and conduct. Let our behavior be based on our
true beliefs. We must stop running blindly for more and more raw material,
market and money. We have to create a balance in life. Science and spirituality
must go hand in hand if humanity is to be saved from total destruction,
devastation, and mental depression and all that has snatched the real joy and
bliss. This is how we can attain the real happiness in life.