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  Happiness!! A myth or truth? A spiritual perspective

As I scrolled my YouTube feed, a video which listed quotes on “happiness” caught my eye. Curious I was in the quest for “real happiness”. The video comprised some amazing collection of rare quotes on happiness and gave variety of perspectives on what happiness means and concluded “key to happiness lies in feeling of contentment and gratitude. 

Yet, the seeker of happiness in me was still not happy. 

Happiness indeed is multifaceted. On end of happiness spectrum are those who believe the word “happy” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. I remember my father would always recall the lyrics of a Telugu song which goes ‘baadhe saukhyamane bhaavan ranivoy aa yeruke nischlanandamoy brahmanadamoy’ which translates as: it is when pain becomes comforting to the heart is when real bliss experienced. On the other end of the spectrum are those who believe it is neither the wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation which give happiness. 

Seeing my son grow up from  babyhood to teenage, I observed that the kind of happy person he was in his early years deteriorated into his teenage. Stress of life and world had taken over him. This makes me wonder is it the nature of this world that makes its inhabitants stressful and less happy or is it we who don’t wish to be happy what so ever. 

But the most important question that haunted me was can we be eternally happy? It only seemed to be a myth if anyone could say that. Death of a loved one makes us devastated, a chronic terminal illness can get us nowhere towards happiness. And at last, our own death is most frightening and dreadful. 

To be eternally happy, we need to exist eternally before anything else. Since our existence is only temporary, how can we expect eternal happiness?

These and many more such questions remained unanswered until I came across Bhagavad-Gita As it is by His Divine grace A.C. Bhakthivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.

Lord Krishna in the Gita says to Arjuna “Never was there a time that I did not exist, nor you nor any of these kings, nor in future any of us will cease to be.” (Bg. 2.12). The Lord further helps us understand our eternal existence by giving the example of a person changing from old worn out clothes to new clothes. The Lord says “As a person puts on new garments, giving up old worn out ones to new ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies giving up old and useless ones.” (Bg. 2.22).

The knowledge that I am not this material body but a spirit soul existing eternally made me realize at least theoretically that it is futile to search for happiness in the state of temporary bodily existence.

The Lord gives a clue to achieve eternal happiness when He says “One who is not connected with the Supreme can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?” (Bg. 2.66).

By delving deeper into the conversation between the Lord and Arjuna in Gita, it became evident that it is Lord Krishna who is the Supreme. Arjuna says to Lord Krishna “You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute truth and eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Narada, Asita, Devala, and Vyasa proclaim this of you, and now You yourself are declaring it to me. (Bg.10.12-10.13) 

So the key to eternal happiness as I understood from the Gita is to connect with the Supreme eternal divine person Lord Krishna. 

Now it seemed only a step away in getting the access to that “eternal happiness” and that is revealed when the Lord Himself assures of it by saying “Just fix your mind upon Me, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus, you will live in Me always, without a doubt. (Bg.12.8) 

Srila Prabhupada explains that holy name of the Lord and the Lord are nondifferent: therefore, if one chants the Hare Krishna Mahamantra

“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare”, 

Krishna and His internal potency dance on the tongue of the chanter and this is the process recommended in the Gita and other Vedic literatures to attain happiness in this age of kali. 

By making reading of Gita and chanting Hare Krishna mantra a part of my daily routine I have not only attained peace and happiness in life but also gained the strength to face every situation in life with an even mind. This has also made me confident that achieving eternal happiness is not a ‘myth’ but ‘truth’. 

Today on the auspicious occasion of Gita Jayanthi, the day on which Lord Krishna spoke the Gita to Arjuna, I pray to Lord Krishna for the strength to chant His names in all circumstances.

Hare Krishna!