Have you ever wondered as what is the source of our happiness? There is no doubt that whatever we do in life is to get a few moments of joy. We get a job so that money from it can buy us objects for our pleasure or allow us a comfortable life. We also marry with an assumption to spend quality time with the partner. Unfortunately, our happiness is always associated with someone or some object and hence always temporary in nature.
To understand happiness, we need to understand the law of cause and effect. In our experience, the bliss or joy is always an inner effect of an outside cause. For e.g. Someone feels happy when he or she gets a new phone or when someone makes them feel special. There would be millions of causes which can bring joy but they are mostly external. However, the effect always comes from within. This proves that the seed of happiness lies within us.
I may like Indian classical music and it brings a few moments of ecstasy but my wife might get a headache while listening to it. If the seed of happiness would be in the external object like Indian classical music, then it should bring the same level of joy to whoever listens to it. Similarly, some of us enjoy Indian food while some likes Italian pizza but the effect of bliss is always within us.
All these temporary moments of happiness comes from the permanent source and that is our true nature. If we assume that we have spent many lifetimes on this earth, then we will realize that we have spent all our time on creating a comfortable life. We are the generation that has the most comforts one can get but still, our experience of life has not reached its true potential. It is high time we start exploring our inner world.
Let me give you one exercise. Get involved in something that gives you pleasure. It could be shopping or eating chocolate or watching a favourite television show. Now observe the exact moments in which you feel joy arising from these experiences. Now even for a few seconds, just try to hold on to the experience of bliss without those objects or external experiences.
What we are trying to do here is to create an awareness of the inner experience and separate it from the external things or people. This will take some level of efforts but it is worth trying. Ideally, we should be able to create some distance between the object and happiness. It is critical to first become conscious of the possibility that it is possible to be happy without any reason.
The question is how this realization can help us. Think about how many things you have accumulated to get a few moments of joy. I am sure most of them must be lying somewhere unattended. It will be easy to save some money and efforts when there is no more need to indulge in objects for pleasure.
Many can be saved from unwanted relationships which only sparks a few times in a year. We don’t need to run away from people, but we are not dependent on them for our happiness anymore. Many times this gives us freedom in close relationships. The constant demand for getting something from the opposite person will vanish.
Once all the chaos is absent, we will be able to feel the real peace. Once we feel the inner harmony, we will be able to focus on self-realization, the highest possibility of human life.