THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS

You take a look at the front page of any newspaper on any given day. There you will find news
concerning corruption, inflation,rising crime rate, murders, thefts, adulteration etc. etc. The list
goes long. Going through its pages, you would struggle to find just one good news of the day.
You may wonder what’s happening to our society today? Ironically, we all are searching for
happiness in our lives and indeed all our actions are intended to make us as well as our near
and dear ones happy. We all want happiness but instead, we, for most of our lives, end up
being stressed, depressed, diseased and facing problems of all kinds.

True Happiness lies in finding the true cause of problems. We all face problems in our lives. Isn’t
it? But a problem for one person may not be a problem for another. Rising air pollution is a
problem for us, but not for those companies who manufacture masks and pollutant absorbing
materials. So we can say that these problems are relative problems. The real problems are
those which are common to all, no one wants them and no one can avoid them. The Bhagavad
Gita (13.8-12) tells us: “One who can perceive Birth, Death, Old age and Disease as REAL
PROBLEMS is in knowledge.” One may be a follower of any religion, any nationality, any caste,
any social order, rich or poor, still he/she would have to face various types of diseases
throughout entire life, he/she would have to experience the pain of having to take birth in this
world after being packed in mother’s womb for nine months while suffering severely, scorched
by the mother’s gastric fire, continually jolted by sudden movements, and feeling constant
pressure from being contained in a small sack which surrounds him/her in the womb, he/she
would have to face old age which is full of all kinds of troubles, thus ultimately culminating in
the most painful of all experiences: death.

Not only that. To make matters worse, we have 3 kleshas or miseries which can strike any time.
They are, 1. Adhyatmikakleshas (miseries we face due to our body and mind), 2.
Adhibhautikkleshas (miseries faced due to other living entities), and, 3. Adhidaivikakleshas
(miseries due to natural calamities).

Looks like remaining happy in this world has just become a bit more difficult. The definition for
happiness is different for everyone. Somebody thinks he would be happy if he becomes rich,
somebody thinks if he becomes a very learned person, he would become happy, somebody
believes if everyone on the planet begins to follow the religion which he feels to be the best,
then he would become happy, and so on. Therefore, the happiness of one person interferes
with the happiness of another and the stronger one tries to dominate thus causing frustration
to another. Now the frustrated one tries to regain control and this causes misery to everyone
concerned. Happiness in this material world is always tainted with a fear factor. For example,
suppose a person gets admission to a very prestigious institute, his happiness would
accompany a fear of whether he would be able to pass the course. Similarly, a rich person fears
losing his money to thieves, a person having a nice job will fear losing his job to other
competitors and so on. Hence we can call this as illusory happiness. It is illusory for one more
reason as well, that our happiness is not permanent. It is temporary. It is flickering.

So we are still searching for real happiness. At this point, one may ask why bother about all
this? Simply live life king size and suffer or enjoy as per the circumstances. But such an attitude
toward life is found among animals also. They too suffer or enjoy as per circumstances. Then
how are we better than the animals? It is said that when a cat comes to kill a pigeon, the pigeon
closes its eyes thinking that since I cannot see the cat, the cat also cannot see me. But
ultimately the pigeon gets killed. So of what use is this pigeon like attitude? A human being is
considered better than an animal when he inquires, “Why am I suffering?”. All our sufferings
are due to identifying ourselves as this body. But in fact we are soul. The Bhagavad Gita
(chapter 2) discusses this matter in detail. True happiness can be achieved only when the soul is
in harmony with the Supersoul (BG 6.19-23).The Gita tells us that the self is not the gross body
or the subtle mind, but the non-material soul, which gives apparent life to the inanimate body
(BG 7.4-5). The constitutional nature of the soul is to be in a sweet harmony of love with the
Supersoul, God. History is replete with examples of personalities who had all kinds of facilities
to live a luxurious life, yet they were unhappy. We provide food to the body three times a day.
What about food for the soul? The soul is starving. In such a state, the soul keeps on discarding
old bodies and accepts new ones. The soul, through the medium of the body, tries to do
everything possible for achieving that bliss, that happiness. But all that the soul experiences is
repeated frustration and causes frustration for others as well. Searching for happiness in this
material world is like searching for colors in a black and white image. The soul does not belong
to this material world. Its real home is the spiritual world. Lord Krishna tells Arjuna in the
Bhagavad Gita (8.20), “Yet there is another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is
transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested world. It is supreme and is never
annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.”

In this age of Kali, chanting of the Holy Names of the Lord is the food for the soul. This is a
sublime method to revive our love for God. People all around the world have been benefitted
by this simple process. So chant “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna KrishnaKrishna Hare Hare. Hare
Ram Hare Ram RamRam Hare Hare” and you will experience real bliss which is unobtainable
even with all the riches of this world at your disposal. This material world can be compared to a
hospital. Just as no patient would like to remain in the hospital all his life howsoever advanced
the hospital may be, similarly the soul (we ourselves) shall not find any real happiness in this
material world irrespective of any number of facilities and luxury that may be provided. Just as
a patient wants to get discharged from the hospital as soon as possible, we also need to find
some way to get out of this material world, and return to spiritual world. There only one can
find the real bliss, the real happiness.