HUMAN HAPPINESS — AN UNRESOLVED PUZZLE
What is the one thing that most of the 7.9 billion people in the world chase in their life? What is that one property that you always strive for in your life? Is it wealth, good education, stable, secure and high salary jobs, a good family or a steady, smooth and healthy life without diseases?
No. It is none of this. It is happiness. We have set our heart on it. We chase it like a shadow but never get it. We are unhappy and do not have peace of mind even if we have all those things in our grasp and have already achieved our goals in life.
Do we know what happiness is? Is it a matter or a substance? Can you buy it or not? Do you look for it or not? So, where does happiness lie?
Is it available in the market, in the universities of the world or on the shelf of our brain? Is it an object of learning? How would you find it?
Is it in the body? Is it in our minds? Is it in the intellect? Is it in the sheath of bliss? No, it is nowhere where you search? If it exists, then where is it? We feel it but cannot find it. It is present everywhere yet seems imaginary. Does your age, family, health, education or wealth offer you the long-lasting happiness you are seeking?
The answer is NO.
Then where is happiness? It is intuitive. You are existence, consciousness, bliss. The Chhāndogya Upanishad set forth the doctrine of one of the four Mahavakyas (The great sentences) ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ (Thou art That). The Upanishads are prudence disciplines that delve into the inner meaning of self-awareness.
Those who have not studied Upanishads could find them overwhelming though it is true. The problem is we do not know about our true nature. We make a fool of ourselves when we strive for happiness but are unable to obtain it.
Here are some examples:
· There is a species of musk deer in the Himalayan Mountains. The wispy fragrance of musk always flows out of its body. It always sniffs the scent of musk. The deer does not know where it comes from and is unaware of this fact. So, it wanders in the entire mountain range and the jungles to find it out. Since it is inside its body, wherever it goes, the fragrance travels with it.
This process of finding the scent never ends. It only ends when the deer dies without getting it. So from birth to death, it goes on searching for the essence. We dwell in a similar condition. Happiness always lies in us but, we fail to find it out. It is naturally associated with us from birth.
· Sugar makes everything sweet. As we add sugar to water and milk, both of them will become sweet. It is natural. Everyone knows that it is a scientifically proven process. What about sugar, though?
What makes sugar sweet? It is a silly question only a fool can ask. Some may argue that sugar is not sweet naturally. We use sugarcane to produce sugar. Then, what about sugarcane? What makes sugarcane sweet? It is sweet naturally. Sugarcane does not have to look outside for sweetness.
Happiness is always within us. Yet, we struggle to find it in the outside world. In fact, we have to search inside to find happiness. We have to look within ourselves. It is a process of self-inquiry. We will have to dive deep within ourselves. Even shallow surfing would not work.
Once, it was a spiritual experience. Unfortunately, now it has turned out to be a commercial activity. A niche transformed into a money mint to make millions. The half learned people converted it into an industry. Such people live and enjoy their life in luxury from the money earned from you.
They are no longer interested in healing your wounds. We have made our life full of panic and stress rather than relaxation and ease. The cause for this is a lack of satisfaction and serenity.
Why do you need someone to give you lessons about happiness? Why do you need to search for happiness? Why do you need to purchase happiness courses? Those who have written books on happiness are always prepared to deliver lectures and the so-called life coaches who teach this subject are not happy in their life and struggle to find the solution.
The happiness industry is currently worth over 4.2 trillion dollars. People merchandise it like a saleable commodity. Fantasy stories promised with imaginary covers and presented as true ones. Significantly, 3.4 million people have registered themselves for a course on happiness during the last three years alone. Social media research reveals more than 151 million Instagram posts with the hashtag happiness and 1 million with the hashtag happiness is a choice.
There are private counselling centres about happiness where they provide coaching on how to be happy in life. There are millions of posts and chats, videos and audios, webinars and seminars on social media platforms and even in the big glamorous auditoriums. But they are worthless.
There is a lot of agony, anguish, tribulations and turbulences in our life. What is the purpose of this? Are we always going to remain in pain and suffering? There must be a solution. Everything in life is transient, but happiness is eternal.
Despite the fact that at least 200 famous universities across the globe have founded research centres devoted to learning more about happiness, it remains one of the most misunderstood, ill-defined and elusive, far from convincing and subjective concepts. Yet, the subject remains beyond their knowledge of perception. It is because they do all these studies, experiments and inquiries superficially.
Those who want to study happiness will have to dig deep within themselves first. Even shallow inquiry would not work. For example, you will have to dive deep into the sea to find pearls, maybe till the seabed. You will not get them on the surface or just by diving a few feet inside the water. Then after reaching the seafloor, you will have to carry out an extensive search while facing many challenges.
Reading books and carrying out surveys by questioning people will never give you the expected results. The minds of people vary and have different opinions from time to time. It is truly that easy and achievable, yet it is complex and appears to be difficult to obtain so much that we require podcasts, films and books to assist us in our quest for happiness. This kind of attitude is absolutely shocking.
It is not only the duty of the governments or some organisations to make everyone happy because we cannot teach, gain or search for happiness. New amendments in national, economic, social or cultural laws will not guarantee peace. Not even the worshipping places offer you tranquillity.
It must be our collective responsibility to show one another that happiness is always present in the form of blessings of God. We have to unfurl our sail completely. We will have to eradicate our sectarian and religious differences before doing all these.
We will have to take our minds to the higher plains. Like the Hubble Space Telescope provides better views of the universe from orbit than the telescopes on the planet.
Modern medical science or psychology will never solve your problem of happiness in the near future. It could be an exaggeration to say but, it is still in its infancy. You will have to turn your attention to the ancient Indian scriptures of Vedas and Upanishads. Vedic rishis have written them with practical knowledge. They are available in almost all the languages of the world.
You cannot study them directly. You will have to follow true gurus either from India or Buddhist monks. Such true spiritual masters are spread all over the world. Most of the present-day psychologists have written their theses after studying these scriptures.
But the problem is they have studied directly rather than consulting the masters. The language of these scriptures is paradoxical; hence it is hard to understand precisely without a teacher. Otherwise, there are big chances of misconceptions. As if a disaster waiting to happen.
You have two alternatives only, out of which you have to choose one to get eternal happiness. The first is pleasurable and the second is preferable. If you chase pleasurable, you will never be happy. Unknowingly you wander into an unpleasant world.
If you choose the preferable, it will provide you with happiness for the rest of your life. It is eternal and reveals true identity. Then no power in the world can shake you, not even the most profound grief or the most gruelling circumstances.
You will remain at inexplicable peace. You will permanently find a solution to your personal, professional, social and cultural problems.
Mind is the only subtle instrument that causes all kinds of havoc in our life. It always remains unstable. Thus, we continually live in a state of discontent. If we succeed in controlling the mind, then we will have eternal calmness. Otherwise, we will remain trapped in an enormous conflict of life. The latter is a dominant factor and is visible in everyday life.
We need systematic education on how to train our minds. It requires a long time and demands a lot of patience. Since we constantly face external forces of the world that have adverse effects on our minds.
Control of the mind must be in our hands. We should not let it wander here and there in unnecessary things. Not only to a particular community or country but, the entire human race must learn this science.
A person slipping on the footpath or living in a hut could be happier than a billionaire enjoying holidays on a million-dollar yacht or living in the luxurious multi-billion villas.
Peace and happiness always complement each other. You cannot buy, sell or teach it. You have to rediscover it. Indexing and ranking the countries based on the questionnaires to the local citizens will not be fruitful.
He who knows the subject can teach it. Like a mathematician can teach mathematics, a historian can teach history, he who has studied medicine can practice it. Thus only true monks know what happiness is. They have studied it deeply and are aware of this.
Thus, if you want to obtain happiness, you will have to bow down to a spiritual person and be his disciple.
Every single Upanishad precisely teaches how to identify ourselves, who we are or what we are with its unique example. Ultimately they lead to the one reality.
The four Vedas and the one hundred and eight Upanishads have no authors. They date back to 7000 years. Yet, they are timeless and ageless. These are the most ancient scriptures available to humankind. The Almighty God thou self might have incarnated in the form of enlightened sages and could have written them. Who knows?
