Path to Eternal Happiness
- Shashwat
Our sojourn in this world begins with a desire for peace. All our life we struggle to search for it in the ever changing objects of this world. We amass wealth, acquire power, build grandiose houses to live in, install all possible appliances of comfort in the house and employ domestic help to ensure that discomfort and needs do not touch ourselves and our family,. In our race we forget “Ourselves”, the embodiment of peace and tranquility, and like the deer, keep running in search of the “Kasturi”, which is actually within us.
Technological advancements have provided us with all possible pleasures, but still, pain and misery surround us, our greed and fear lead us to violence, push us into wars, riots and clashes. We create an atmosphere of hatred, greed, malice and illusions around us; peace and happiness alludes us.
We need to take a pause for introspection. Our sages and rishis have spent their lives contemplating on the purpose of our existence and how to achieve everlasting bliss and happiness. They have taken pains to describe their experiences in the world, for us to take advantage of, but alas in our pursuits for material comforts, we find no time for their writings. We come into this world with our sanskars as per our past actions. We get conditioned by our environments, are influenced by the advice of our parents, near and dear ones, our secular education system and conduct of our society. Our reactions to the happenings around us depend on these factors. In short our reactions are conditioned and not true to our nature. In a way we are all liars as we do not conduct ourselves as per our “Swaroopa” i.e., our inner consciousness. This is where we falter.
We have to evolve and strive to go beyond these conditions of Body Mind and Intellect (BMI). We have to gain liberation from the matter equipments and their delusory play. We have to transcend dualism and achieve equipoise in heat and cold, pain and pleasure, honor and dishonor to attain eternal bliss. For this we have to delve into the storehouse of knowledge that is contained in our spiritual science books. This science of spiritual development has to be understood, assimilated, absorbed and experienced in order to reap its full benefits.
We have to live a life of complete self control, do our duties efficiently and sincerely and develop concentration and control and regulate our thought flow towards a noble goal. This way the existing vasanas get exhausted, the mind becomes contemplative and our inner consciousness starts shining more and more. The qualifications necessary for a seeker are discrimination ( viveka ), dispassion ( vairagya ), discipline ( shat sampathi ) and a burning desire to liberate oneself from the thralldom of change ( mumukshatvam ). The six disciplines prescribed for a seeker are abandonment of desires ( sama ), restrain of the external functions of the organs ( dama ), turning away completely from all source objects ( uparati ), and patient endurance of all sorrow and pain ( titiksha ). Shraddha is another discipline prescribed for the spiritual seekers. It is not blind faith, as understood by the ignorant, but devotion, love, and total commitment to learn, assimilate and live the knowledge contained in Vedas. The capacity to concentrate and contemplate upon the truth constantly and continuously, and thus achieve a quiet mind is samadhana , the last prescribed discipline. This is the condition of mind when the thoughts flowing through the mind get focused on the one and only reality, the Inner Self.
The one who has all these qualifications and discipline is the fittest person ( adhikari) to enquire onto the nature of reality and enter the path of self analysis and investigation in the process of contemplation. The path is difficult and arduous, but with devotion, sustained efforts and single-pointedness, we are sure to attain our goal of eternal bliss and liberation from this cycle of birth and death and walk on the p ath to Eternal Happiness.
The writer has taken Vanaprasth deeksha from Her Holiness Maa Purnanandaji