Look for Happiness In The Right Places

Despite the superstar status and smiling faces on social media, true joy remains a distant dream

Justin Bieber is one of the world’s most popular music artists in the last fifteen years. He is a Grammy award winner. His albums have sold over 150 million copies, and at the time of writing this book, he was the second-most followed person on Twitter worldwide. Yet, during an interview on NME.com, he opened up about his miseries, ‘I struggle to simply get through the day. I get lonely. People see the outer remarkable stuff, but they do not know the other side. This life rips me apart.’

Is Justin Bieber the only celebrity to express melancholy? Not at all. There is an unending list of cine stars, athletes, TV artistes, and royalty who have publicly revealed their sentiments of despair, hollowness, panic, and even depression. 

Apparently, people who possess riches, fame, adulation, and opulence, ‘have it all’. Yet, despite the superstar status and smiling faces on social media, true joy remains a distant dream. The external façade is deceiving, for internally they are miserable. 

Ultimately, the bottom line is that we all want happiness. If we do not get it, then naturally, even the biggest success seems purposeless and unfulfilling. 

The source of the Universal Quest

The longing for happiness comes from God Himself. He is an ocean of bliss. And as His little parts, we naturally seek bliss. Hence, the yearning for happiness is as natural to our being as wetness is to water and heat is to fire. It can never be quelled. The only option we have is to look for it in the wrong place or the right one. 

So where is the bliss we are searching for? Where should we look for our search to be worthwhile and where should we avoid it as an exercise in futility? To understand the answers to these questions, know that there are primarily four categories of happiness you can savour. 

The four types of happiness you can seek 

1. From tamasic entities and pursuits, such as intoxicants, meat-eating, gambling, sleeping, and anger. Pursuing this kind of happiness plunges our soul into the darkness of ignorance. 

2. From rajasic entities and pursuits. This is the pleasure we get by indulging our senses in the objects of their gratification. The problem is that there is no satiation, rather they get inflamed. You can compare it to an itch. It is tempting to scratch, but that does not solve the problem; the itch comes back again. 

3. From sattvic entities and pursuits, such as knowledge, stillness of mind, and philanthropy. This kind of pleasure illumines us, nurtures good virtues, and elevates our consciousness. Yet even sattvic happiness cannot satisfy us because it is material while our soul is divine. 

4. Divine bliss. Unlike the previous three, this is happiness that does not fade with time. Not only does it stay ever fresh, but it also keeps increasing. 

The Chhāndogya Upanishad states: yo vai bhumā tatsukham (7.3.1) 

‘Divine bliss is infinite in extent.’ 

In conclusion, if we wish to be infinitely happy forever, then we must make divine bliss as our goal. How can we do that? For it, we will first need to give up a mental disease. 

The destination disease

Most people realise they are presently unhappy, but they expect that on reaching a future goal, they will surely become joyous. Here are some examples of the destination disease: 

• ‘I have a million presently; when I become a billionaire, then I will surely have it all and that will make me happy.’

• ‘I live in a one-bedroom apartment; when I get a three-bedroom bungalow, I will feel secure and happy.’

We all think that a higher standard of living must result in higher happiness. The problem is that on reaching the higher standard, we find it does not satisfy. The illusion of future happiness creates the destination disease. It is like the veritable ‘mirage in the desert’ that keeps fading away as we move towards it. 

Bliss in the present instead of future

Ironically, to be happy we need neither luxuries, nor high positions, nor big bank balances. If the ocean of happiness, God, is seated within each of us, all that is required to be genuinely happy is to cleanse our mind and bring our consciousness closer to Him. Then we will experience His infinite bliss and become completely satisfied. 

Thus, the real way to be happy is to go within yourself—to become a better person. Simple isn’t it!