Seeking happiness? Know what it is like
By Vivek Sharma
What is real happiness? We all are searching for it and we all associate with its different attributes as happiness. These attributes are hidden in your statements—I feel joyous, I am excited to…, I feel inspired, I am thrilled, I am loving it…and all other exclamations like these fall in this category.
They express that you are happy but you still can’t define happiness. Because, happiness is your real nature, not sorrow. Sorrow is just a sign that you are not happy. So to be sorrow-less you have to manifest your real nature and be happy and make others happy too. That means happiness is that blast of energy which kills all sorrows within and without and spreads all over.
Well, Krishna says it all in one shloka — प्रसादे सर्वदुखानां हानिरस्योपजायते। All sorrows fully dissolve when you are really happy. What is this real happiness? How to attain it? Krishna says—विधेयात्मा प्रसादमधिगच्छति।। A person with a disciplined mind gets real happiness. What is this disciplined mind? The mind which doesn’t get polarised into negatives and positives, like likes and dislikes, hate and love, heat and cold. The mind is the ruler of the senses and hence the senses of such a person are not driven by likes and dislikes (रागद्वेषवियुक्तैः) even if they are interacting with the objects around (विषयानिन्द्रियैश्चरन्). That means as long as you seek what you like, you are also seeking what you dislike. Therefore, seeking what you like can give you some joys, but they would not last longer and what you dislike will cover it over like the scum on the still waters—it breaks, reveals the bottom and then it covers it all over and your vision of happiness is gone! Therefore, if you like to have real happiness, you need to have a disciplined mind and the senses following that discipline. Discipline here means giving the mind its real space in the circular hierarchy of the body-mind system. That is the senses are higher than the body, the mind is higher than the senses, the perception (intellect) is higher than the mind and Intelligent Energy is higher than the intellect (perception). The intellect must receive, perceive energy from Intelligent Energy, the mind must follow such an intellect and the senses must follow such a mind and the body must follow such senses.
It means when the senses are working for the mind and not the other way around then alone you get real happiness—the one which destroys all sorrows. Happiness itself is a complete spiritual exercise. The perception of the happy person quickly gets all round and full (प्रसन्नचेतसा ह्याशु बुद्धिः पर्यवतिष्ठते )।।.
If your mind is not disciplined in the real sense of the term, your perception will be negative and your energy will be negative too (नास्ति बुद्धिरयुक्तस्य न चायुक्तस्य भावना). With negative energy, how can you get peace and without peace, how can there be happiness? (न चाभावयतः शान्तिरशान्तस्य कुतः सुखम्।।)
Krishna says it all. He is smiling always, making us happy all the time. But, are we really receiving His happy energy? That is the question. Everybody wants to be happy. But, none wants to manifest the principle of real happiness in the heart. What we are doing right now is closing ones eyes and trying to seek happiness in the world!