TRUE HAPPINESS BEYOND OUR DESIRES
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On 26th January 1950, around three years of hard work culminated in the Constitution of our nation. In those three years, the architects of the constitution discussed what we, as a nation, should let go of and what we should adopt. They charted how the nation should organize itself so as to tap into its huge potential and make collective progress. This day is known as our Republic Day.
At Tej Gyan Foundation, this day is celebrated as ‘Happy Thoughts Day.’ On this day, it’s an opportune time for us to assess our own inner “constitution”! It’s an opportunity to chart out the way to reach the ultimate zenith of unbroken joy and peace, because that’s the state we all want to be in.
At an individual level, we all often go on a wild goose chase, hunting for happiness in the world around us. We believe certain things, people, or situations can make us happy and so we wait our entire lives for such moments. We forget the greatest secret of life and set the tag of “Terms & Conditions apply” on our own peace and happiness.
We carry a load of desires, which compounds situationally. With each desire being fulfilled, we wish for something better and bigger than the present situation. It’s great to dream big and motivate ourselves. But it is this very cycle of desires, which when not fulfilled, causes so much sorrow. Often, we even live in the fear of certain hopes not being fulfilled.
Even when our wishes do get fulfilled, the contentment and happiness gradually fade off and we find ourselves back to dreaming, back to square one. Juggling between our hopes, joys, and sorrows, we often forget to enjoy life in the moment.
It is not bad to have desires; in fact, they are a motivating factor and can help us focus our creative potential to achieve our goals. But desires are a double-edged sword. If they don’t get fulfilled, we become upset and even lose hope. If they get fulfilled, our ego can flare up as we experience temporary happiness. It is the temporary nature of this joy that causes the cycle or the quest for unlimited joy to still go on.
Well here’s the secret—YOU are the Source of it all. You are the treasure trove of joy and peace unimaginable! In fact, you are happiness. There’s just a layer of dust that shrouds this truth, which needs to be cleared away—the dust of ignorance.
Some people go beyond materialism and come to believe that the best things in life are not things, but moments. But, even more than moments, there is the NOW… the seemingly illusive present moment, which is the best thing in life, because it’s in this NOW that we are truly alive!
Due to our mistaken belief that happiness comes from external things, we endlessly focus our efforts towards the external world. Whenever we acquire what we desire, the mind’s restlessness caused by that desire temporarily subsides, momentarily revealing the happiness that always exists within us.
But we fail to recognize that this happiness is available within us and wrongly connect the momentary glimpses of happiness with the desires that get fulfilled. The more we experience such temporary happiness, the more we get convinced that our happiness lies in worldly things, in people, in cherished moments. We then continue to desire those things at the cost of losing the very source of happiness that we always are!
The trick, or let’s say, the guidelines in the “constitution” of human life, give a simple solution—let go of your habit of chasing desires. When you let go, you begin to live more in the present and enjoy the way life unfolds. You begin to experience the miracle of life in the simplest happenings around you.
When desires are viewed from afar, you’ll notice your deepest wish. For instance, the desire for money arises from the deep wish to experience abundance and security. Keep your fundamental wish in mind and detach yourself from the means or the secondary desires that promise to lead you there.
As you find yourself living in the moment and seeing the miracles around you, that inner happiness will blossom. Eventually, all your desires add up to the wish for love, joy and peace, which are infinitely and permanently present only within yourself, free from any outer dependencies. You are the source of your own boundless unconditional bliss!
~ Based on the Teachings of Sirshree
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