Dear Friends,
It is needless to say that we all want to be happy. May be you are reading this to understand and find more ways to be happy. Having said that we also should know two things-
1. Happiness is not just a choice or a wish, it is a responsibility
2. Happiness is a skill which one must learn to cultivate
Allow me to elaborate it in the light of teachings of Swami Vivekananda and Yugrishi Pt Shriram Sharma. While emphasizing on his teaching of power of thought, Swami ji use to give the example of tuning musical instruments. In his own words, “If there are different musical instruments tuned alike in one room, all of you may have noticed that when one is struck, the others have the tendency to vibrate so as to give the same note. So all minds that have the same tension, so to say, will be equally affected by the same thought”.
If we understand this deeply, it conveys a very profound message. Any shift happening in my frequency can bring a positive or negative shift in all the other minds and souls connected with me.
So an act of happiness performed by me can bring smiles on faces of many without me and them knowing about it and so is true if I am in a miserable sorrowful state.
Has this not ever happened with you that you found yourself feeling happy or sorrow for no reason? May be someone connected with you was vibrating at that frequency and the tuning between two of you lead to this mutual experience. This is what makes me say that ‘to be happy’ should therefore is not just an individual's choice, it is a collective duty, an important social responsibility.
But the concern is we have to learn how to be happy. Take a pause then.
Even before getting into finding the methodology, let us establish the fundamental definition of Happiness. Please understand that Happiness is not about excitement. It is being in harmony with the existence. One who learns the art of being in sync finds this life to be a pleasant experience and others who fail to sync finds it miserable and unpleasant. The Eastern teachings from the saints of Himalayas declare that you are contended and complete and therefore there is no point having a quest for happiness. Ananda (bliss) is your innate swaroop (nature). All this quest is because we have forgotten our real self and have started identifying ourselves with the relative, temporary & false identity. It is the dirt, distraction and diversion of the mind that overshadows the blissful self like the sun getting clouded on shiny day.
The whole skillset that an unhappy person needs to learn is to calm the mind down, to bring a certain degree of stillness and learn to detach the self from the mind itself. Yoga or spiritual teaching is the art and science of getting into that zone. In the words of Maharshi Patanjali “Yogah chitta vritti nirodhaha”; Yoga is restraining and calming the mind down.
It is a natural tendency of every human being to remain satisfied, contended and happy always, but we more often than not find ourselves in stress, anxiety and depression due to incessant and wrong way of thinking. Lets unlearn a few things to achieve that natural state of being and be happy again. Happy, not just for ourselves, but for others too, for whom we care.