Not long ago, within a few days, I came upon two interesting articles.
The
first one tells about a research done at the Yale University in the
USA. It dealt with studying people who are seeking happiness in their
lives. After many years of research, the results were striking. It
turned out that, compared to people not seeking happiness in life, the
seekers have the highest ratios of suicide, disease, depression,
alcoholics and drug addicts. They are also more under stress. The
scientists conclude that the pursuit of happiness itself causes stress. I
agree. But why is everything so dramatic?
The second article is about another research. For many years, scientists were comparing the lives of optimists and pessimists. The results were once again paradoxical from the scientific point of view. The research showed that pessimists live longer than optimists, they are more successful and satisfied in life and they are also healthier.
Let us look at all this from the point of view of Santana Dharma or The Eternal Teaching, as translated from Sanskrit. It has answers to absolutely all questions people might have.
From the very beginning of our classes, I suggest people to crush their hopes. Sounds weird, cruel and confusing – why crush it? How are we supposed to live without hope? What about hope dying last etc.? I guess, everything inside you resists this idea.
In reality, hope is a form of Maya or illusion. The absolute majority of hopes will never come true. Life is designed to have all illusions destroyed, both bad ones and good ones. Indeed, life destroys them. The greater the illusion, the more ruthless its annihilation. Why? Very simple – illusions, like pink or black glasses, distort reality, but one of the main goals in life for people is to learn to see reality and be able to tell apart cause and effect. In the Vedic tradition, this is called Viveka. So, illusion or hope is our enemy. “What about happiness”, you might ask. After all, the main hope of all people is being happy. This is where I always ask a question – who was it that told you people are supposed to be happy in life? How can a person be happy in Kali Yuga when at least 75% of Karma is negative Karma? Practically, this percentage is even greater. Can we be happy with so much negative Karma? What this means is that we are in prison on planet Earth. We have committed different offenses and are under different conditions and terms of imprisonment. People are not placed in prison to enjoy life – they are there to be punished, to have their freedom taken away, to atone for their wrongdoings and to reform. Buddha said for a reason that life is suffering. I usually say that, in Kali Yuga, having it bad is normal, whereas having it good is an exception.
This all means that the very idea of seeking happiness in our time, called Kali Yuga, is a utopia. That is how the results of these research cases are explained. In other words, people are seeking something that does not exist and, once they do not get it, they experience stress and disappointment, disappointment being the number one cause of all their illnesses and problems.
Imagine that your birthday is coming. You are hoping to receive a Mercedes, a BMW, a diamond ring or at least a fur coat as a gift. You are excruciated with expectation. Finally, the awaited day comes, the bell rings and you rush to the door. He, your prince, is at the doorstep holding a tulip. What will you feel at this moment? Right, the cruelest of disappointments. And why is that? Because you had hope. Now imagine a different situation – you are not expecting anything and are not even hoping for your prince to show up at all, you have no expectations whatsoever. Now the same tulip will turn out to be a wonderful gift.
Well, what about optimism and pessimism, to wit, the so called “positive thinking” that is taught on every corner? Tell me, is there anyone who thinks negatively, anyone who wants to harm himself? All living beings want to live and wish to be well. Even masochists ask for pain because it makes them feel better. Everyone thinks positively, but to no effect. There is a good eastern proverb, saying “you can scream “halva” (a sweet dish) all you want, but that will not make your mouth sweet”. So, pessimists and people not seeking happiness feel better in life because their way of thinking is closer to reality and, as a result, they have less disappointment. Life does not go the way we want it to, it goes its way according to Karma, but Karma, as seen before, is mainly negative. That is a different topic, however. I talk about Karma and the ways of changing it in a special class.
This was known in Santana Dharma since the creation of the world. Modern science only reached these conclusions now. Better late than never.
At this point, I would like to calm you down and ease the stress. Everything that has been said does not mean there is no happiness. Happiness exists, but in Santana Dharma happiness means something else. What people call happiness is not real happiness. I call it the joy of possession. For example, you buy a car or get married and you feel “happy” about it. Then, you crash the car or your spouse leaves you – what happens to your “happiness”? Where does it go? In Yoga, real happiness is a state of mind that is independent of external circumstance. You are happy on your own. This happiness does not have to be sought anywhere. It is always with you – inside you. Hence, the very idea that happiness is somewhere outside of you, that is has to be “sought” and “fought for” already means that you will never find it. You are doomed. The Bible says that you will go and seek and never find but, once you stop, it will come on its own.
Where does this naive idea of happiness in life come from? Why do people who have never seen and known happiness in their lives, after experiencing continuous disappointments in the pursuit of it, still seek it? The answer lies in the fact that, some time very long ago in Satya Yuga or the golden age, everyone was happy, primarily because they lived in God and according to the laws of Dharma. As usual, everything degrades with time – only brandy gets better over time. There is no evolution, there is only devolution. As for our bright future, it simply cannot come true. All the talk about it is a form of Maya or illusion or, to call a spade a spade, a type of collective hope. The memory of that state has remained very deep in peoples’ subconsciousness and makes them seek. But they are not seeking where the happiness actually was and still is. In Kali Yuga, the form replaces content and effects replace causes – that is why people seek it outside of themselves instead of inside and do not find it, of course. True happiness is God. If you have God in your consciousness you will be truly happy. If God is not there, nothing and no one will replace it for you. The Bible says “strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”.
There you go.