In the previous articles, we dealt with the fundamental meaning of yoga & spirituality. Now since we have understood what exactly they mean, it’s time to look at the very basic human longing which is ‘Happiness’. Previously on many occasions, I mentioned about happiness, because that is the very fundamental aspect of human life. There are different names which we give to the happiness, we call it joy, ecstasy, blissfulness, harmony, equanimity etc…. But essentially if we have to categorize, it is Pleasantness Vs. Unpleasantness. Every piece of life on this planet be it a human being, bird, animal or insect is basically looking for the pleasantness within themselves.

Today beyond doubt we can say that we are the most comfortable generation on this planet earth physically. All the things like cell phones, computers, internet, modes of transport and various other things which we have taken for granted today, these were not there just a few decades ago. The science & technology has enabled the human being to have the biggest ever comforts possible. And it has taken a huge toll on our planet. The very motive of the science and technology today is to exploit the planet in the best possible way. The planet earth is paying a huge toll to have all such kind of comforts. Human beings have gone to such an extent that even many species have gone extinct. The natural resources are depleting rapidly.

But despite all these comforts and modern technologies, Can we claim that we are the happiest generation ever? The answer is a definite ‘BIG NO’.  This situation is certainly worrying because to bring the pleasantness around us, we have destroyed and are still destroying the resources of mother earth, but still, we are no closer to the happiness. Everyone seems to be in a pursuit of happiness, but the more we try the farther we get from it. Hence there must be something fundamentally wrong with our very approach. We need to get into the root cause & need to understand why it is happening.

The happiness in today’s society is something which somebody receives from another. For e.g, A guy will say he is happy when he is having a good time with his girlfriend. Someone will say that he is happy when he visited ‘Mount Everest’. Some may say they are happy when they are with their best buddies. So essentially our idea of happiness is some sort of transaction with the other person or entity. That means to be happy you are either dependent upon others or you are dependent upon external situations. In such circumstances slowly and steadily people get bored of each other and the happiness starts to go away. That means the happiness was just a few moments of joy and then it vanished. Now since your happiness is gone you become more and more detached with the living arrangements around you and that ultimately leads to stress, anxiety, depression, madness, tension etc. We need to understand here that if the very experience of our life is determined by ‘external situations or entities’ then the chances of our being happy is very very rare. When we say that somebody makes us happy, it means somewhere fundamentally we have become a slave of that entity.

Let’s take an example to understand this situation when you give biscuits to a dog, What does the dog do? He will love you, he will wag his tail, he will try to pamper you and will play with you, But the moment you show him the stick, what will he do? The dog will do ‘Gurrrrrrrrrr’, i.e. he will bite you. You have become the same way. You are nothing more than a robot & your remote is being carried by somebody else to control you, or we can say you are the bundle of conditioned reflexes & predicted outcomes. If someone is good to you, you will love him, if someone does bad to you, you want to do the same. If such is your situation then you may have small moments of joy but you can never be happy ever.

I want you to understand just one thing: Whatever is happening outside of you will never happen the way you want it. It will never happen 100 percent your way, That is for sure. But whatever happens to you, who should determine it? Would it be you or somebody else? Definitely, it should be you. If somebody else decides what should happen to you, it is the worst kind of slavery. You have become a slave to the external situations and your mind. The nature of the mind is such that it exaggerates things, If you allow unpleasantness, it will make a huge mountain out of it, but if you allow pleasantness it will make it 10 times bigger. Now you need to consciously decide what you need for you.

The other wrong thing which people do when they are in trouble is that they start looking upwards and say “Hey Bhagwaan’ (Oh! My God), why are you doing this to me. Let me tell you, we are very convenient in blaming God for every wrong thing we are responsible for. We all know that planet earth is round, and we also know that this planet is spinning rapidly. So even if we assume that there is a God sitting upwards, invariably we are always looking at the wrong direction. Do we absolutely know which side is up and which side is down in this vast cosmic space-time geometry? The answer is ‘No’. Similarly, do we absolutely know which is east, west, north or south? The answer is No. But one thing which we are sure of is that there is outward, and there is inward.

The very seed of our life is lying inward. For example, Whatever you have experienced in your life, you have experienced within your self. There is nothing which you can ever experience out of yourself. Even whenever you see an object, you see it within yourself. The light falls on your eyes, inverted image in your retina, and Wallah!!!!. You experience a 3-dimensional reality. Hence whatever happens within you should be determined by you only. Once you become this way your whole life experiences are determined by you! And you get an access to the eternal bliss and joy. You are no longer a slave to someone or some activity, you have made yourself in such a way that your whole life experience has reached a level beyond miseries and unpleasantness. Today modern science proves beyond doubt that if you want to be happy you need to increase the capacity of happiness for others as well including your enemies.

Finally, I will take one more example to help you grasp it more easily. When you were a child lets say 5 years of age, Can you tell me how many happy moments you had in 24 hours? I would say the almost the whole day. Even if your father or mother beat you up, you cry for 2 minutes and then forget what just happened and start enjoying life again. But today can you tell me how many moments of happiness you have at this stage? 1? 2? 3?. Some of you who are reading have nothing to count (:p). Have you ever thought why it is so? The reason is that we have become slaves of the external environment and our mind. Just about anything can determine whether we are happy or we are angry. Our moods swing from one extreme to another. It’s time that we realize this weakness, Its high time that we get rid of the slavery of our discriminatory mind. It’s time to take charge of your life. Otherwise, we would have to pay a huge toll for it. We already have in the form of great harm we have done to the planet. Also, the suicide cases are rapidly gaining pace because of stress and anxiety. When we become more and more conscious & aware of our such behavior, we become more equipped to fight against it and bring it to the right path. The very basic yogic practices like breathing techniques, self-reflection, silent sitting & Mantra chanting can help you get to that state and come out of this whirlpool of suffering.

May the Universal Energies of the cosmos enlighten your life with Joy & Happiness! May you move from the temporary path of ‘Wine’ to the Eternal path of ‘Divine’.

Happy Reading 🙂