In this broken, bleeding world, we are all seeking happiness, if we could but understand that happiness is an experience which transcends externality. True happiness is not touched by external events.
He is happy, who sees God! God-vision is emphasised by the rishis of the Upanishads. To see God is to be truly happy.
To see God is to accept the Divine Will. We become unhappy by following the path of desires. Nations are unhappy because they are dominated by desires, of parties or dictators.
These desires constitute what the Gita calls dvandas or pairs of opposites. To be happy you must rise above these ‘pairs’ pleasure and pain, prosperity and poverty, praise and blame, life and death. These ‘pairs’ are the world’s values. Rise above the world’s applause and censure, to be truly happy.
God-vision is a realisation. Rise above the dvandas and realise your unity with the universe. It is the sense of separateness which makes you unhappy. Let the bheda-buddhi go! Develop the abheda-buddhi, the consciousness of unity with the Cosmos! Separation means ‘tension’ and ‘tension’ becomes unhappiness.
One of the disciplines to achieve happiness is silence.
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