𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: 𝗦𝘄𝗮𝗺𝘆 𝗦𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮

(  Swami Sivananda with his devotees in a boat, drifting along the sacred Ganges at Rishikesh )

HAPPINESS — Swami Sivananda

A worldly person is perpetually immersed in sorrow. He is constantly striving—seeking wealth, power, position, and recognition. Along with this striving comes anxiety: anxiety about gaining what he desires, and even greater anxiety about losing it once obtained.

Consider the many conditions of life.

A rich man possesses great wealth but has no children, and so he suffers.

A poor man has many children but lacks food, and so he is miserable.

One man has wealth and children, yet his son is wayward, and he is distressed.

Another has riches and noble sons, but his wife is quarrelsome, and he lives in unrest.

Discontent pervades every station of life.

The session judge longs to become a High Court judge.

The minister aspires to be the premier.

The millionaire desires to become a billionaire.

The husband is dissatisfied with his wife; the wife is dissatisfied with her husband.

The lean man wishes to gain weight; the corpulent man seeks to reduce it.

Thus, no one seems content in this world.

Each imagines another to be happier:

The doctor thinks the advocate is happier.

The advocate thinks the businessman is happier.

The businessman envies the judge.

The judge looks upon the professor with longing.

And yet, none is truly happy.

Even positions of great power fail to bring fulfillment.

An emperor is not happy.

A dictator is not happy.

A president is not happy.

Even Indra, the king of heaven, is not free from restlessness.

Who, then, is truly happy?

The sage is happy.

The yogi is happy.

He who has mastered his mind is happy.

Happiness arises from peace of mind.

Peace of mind arises when the mind is free from desires, from moha (delusion), from viṣaya (sense-objects), and from restless thought. One must transcend even the idea of pleasure to enter the realm of true peace.

Pleasure is Mixed with Pain

Pleasure can never exist without pain. Wherever there is pleasure, pain inevitably follows. In this world of duality, one cannot experience absolute happiness. Life is governed by pairs of opposites:

day and night, life and death, light and darkness, pleasure and pain—each follows the other in an unending cycle.

What is commonly called pleasure is inseparably mixed with pain, fear, and anxiety. Such pleasure is not true happiness. Upon deeper examination, even that fleeting pleasure dissolves—it is merely a projection of the mind.

Pleasure and pain are not two distinct realities. They are relative terms—two aspects of the same experience, like the two sides of a coin. The difference between them is only one of degree, not of kind.

To the unexamined mind, they appear separate.

To one endowed with discrimination, they are seen as one.

ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पूर्णमुदच्यते

पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥