The Hallmark of Happiness

          

(Excerpts from Pujya Sant Sri Asharamji Bapu’s Satsang)
‘Believe it or not, this is a fact.

Love is the basic need of man.

Happiness is the basic need of man.

Eternal bliss is the basic need of man.’

It is impossible to isolate happiness from life. Happiness is our very nature. There can be no life without happiness and vice versa. Life and happiness are two sides of the same coin. But the interesting fact is that man continues to long for happiness being unable to identify happiness. There is the requirement of happiness and there is happiness inherently present within man but due to inability to identify happiness, we reject gold and come home with brass. And we are soon disillusioned with it and want to change it, but alas! What we do is to go for another brand of brass.

Happiness is that which once attained never fades out even in adverse circumstances; the effect of real knowledge, real happiness persists in the heart. What is the hallmark of divine nectar? It converts poison into nectar when mixed with it. The hallmark of water of holy Ganga is that tap water mixed into it too becomes Ganga-water. Poison cannot kill the one who has imbibed divine nectar. In the same way, misery cannot afflict him, who has attained happiness.

Some foolish men are deluded into regarding things like a house, a vehicle, a wife, a couple of factories – the structure of bricks, mortar, iron, timber etc. – as the means to happiness.
There was one such happy bureaucrat. He had a lot of ill-gotten wealth. The bigger the dishonest income, the more irritable one’s nature becomes. One day, the bureaucrat left his office early and drove exultantly to his home. And he made a nice proposal to his wife, “A new movie has been released; come, we’ll watch it.”

The lady got ready for the outing wearing the sari, the blouse and other accoutrements of matching colors but she could not find the sandals of matching color in her shoe-rack. Her mood was off and she sat displeased and annoyed. The husband tried to placate her but she was adamant that she must have sandals of the same matching color. The man too got annoyed and gave a bit of his mind to the wife. The wife paid him back in the same coin. What to talk of watching the movie, they had no mood for dinner that evening and went to bed in that very mood. They had everything worldly men consider productive of happiness, yet so small a thing as a pair of shoes marred everything and even deprived them of food on that day. There is no happiness or sensual pleasure as is not followed by grief, affliction, strife and fear.

This is the epicureans’ concept of happiness – people who consider themselves to be intelligent and give so much importance to a pair of sandals! This is intellectual bankruptcy. Therefore, Lord Krishna says:

संतुष्टः सततं योगी यतात्मा दृढनिश्चयः ।

मय्यर्पित मनोबुद्धिर्यो मद्भक्तः स मे प्रियः ॥

‘Ever content, steady in meditation, possessed of firm conviction, self-controlled, with mind and intellect dedicated to Me, he, My devotee, is dear to Me.’ (Bhagvad Gita: 12.14)

Actually, we never attained real happiness. What we got from circumstances was elation. Elation is a modification of the mind. The elation we get is always followed by an equal amount of grief.

जहाँ बजती हैं शहनाइयाँ वहाँ मातम भी होते हैं ।

जहाँ फूटते हैं पटाखे वहाँ अग्नि भी होती है ।

भूलकर भी उन खुशियों से मत खेलना,

जिनके पीछे लगी हों गम की कतारें ।

‘Songs of marriage are followed sooner or later by cries of mourning.

Pyrotechnics are always accompanied by fire ready to burn.

Never enjoy, even by mistake, those pleasures,

Which are followed by a host of sorrows.’

There is no pleasure in the world that doesn’t bring responsibility, tiredness and ruination in its aftermath. Therefore the hedonist cannot remain ever content. Lord Krishna gave a beautiful thought, संतुष्टः सततं योगी ‘The yogi is ever content.’ A hedonist fills his mind with thoughts of sense-enjoyments, but the Knower of Truth knows the art of beholding and becoming one with the Supreme Brahman, the substratum of the mind. Blessed are those great souls who know this art! Blessed also are they, who have faith in them and make their intellect divine in their holy company.

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