What Is Stopping Us From Being Happy?

Today, most of us are in a state of unhappiness, incompleteness or confusion. The society that we live in projects educational achievements (in terms of marks and degrees), job status, house, vehicle, bank balance, etc. as things that a person should aspire for throughout his life. The higher one rises along any of these parameters, the more happier and successful, we are considered to be.

Now, our pre-conditioned mind with its endless stream of thoughts and desires, forces us into action, action to satisfy all these wants and desires. Success leads to a fleeting sense of happiness, which is soon replaced with the need to satisfy some other want, whereas failure in achieving leads to a kind of frustration, unhappiness or anger. And so this endless cycle continues. We have become slaves to our desires ambitions and deadlines and in our mad rush we forget what was the objective of our endeavours. If it was happiness tranquility or security we will have to admit they are the least available things to us.

It could be debated then that the millions of deprived people all over the world should have been the happiest people around, but we find neither the haves nor the have-nots are happy. Happiness seems to embrace the one who does not feel the need for any of these things, irrespective of whether he has them or not. The only way to achieve such profound understanding is to meditate and enjoy the bliss of the being within, keep experiencing this state until it becomes a second nature. It is actually our true nature or true state of being, which has got superimposed by the mind. Running after things is useless in life. i.e. a kind of frenzied approach to life, full of anxiety, nervous energy. Action born out of an environment of unselfishness, peace, bliss and confidence is required. Even the chosen goal, becomes refined and unselfish (with the capacity to bring the best to the majority.), it can't be otherwise because an action of this nature can be directed only towards a pristine goal.

Even while being outwardly involved in action, the mind should always be fixed within, and should always be with the self. Peace and happiness abounds, where the mind is completely still {desire less and thoughtless}. This is the state of bliss.

Being involved in action, would produce waves of agitation in the mind, leading to stress, anxiety (past, present), tension etc., but if the being is centered, unattached to the action, it is performing, desire less of the outcome, just performing his duty, these undesirable effects of impure action would not manifest.

Now how do you achieve such a state?
The mind can be stilled and turned inwards, only when you actually realize the futility of chasing outwardly objects and forms. i.e. When you understand the very nature of these achievements and the price that you have to pay for them. So what do you need to be happy? OR RATHER do you need anything to be happy?

Desires manifest in various hues and forms. We need to stop feeding/fuelling desires, nor trying to suppress them because aversion and desire both are two sides of the same coin. Whatever desires manifest, they are representative of your present state or nature (they are a part of you), suppressing them will just make them come back at you with double the force. Indulging in them will also not serve the purpose of getting rid of them. You might feel saturated for a while, the mind might turn its attention to something else, but will come back in search sooner than later. The only way to get rid of it is to replace this with something higher and more profound. Just like when you were a child you were obsessed with your toys and then you went on to higher things, the dolls and the cars dropped of on their own, even today you might play with toys with kids around, but there is no sense of attachment towards them, you can drop it at a moments notice and not think of it again. This is the attitude that has to be developed.

If happiness or joy is our very nature there is no question of the need for anything. But the difficult task is to understand our true nature as SAT CHITANANDA (ever happy soul).