Search for true happiness

In India, when others were working on improving themselves technologically, economically and scientifically, there was a group of people who were investigating the mind and the inner workings of the human psyche. Therefore, it is quite natural that we have a big body of literature on the search for who we actually are, where we have come from, where we are going and what is the aim of life. The urge for happiness is built into our system. It is not something that comes from outside.

In this little drama between life and death, we think we can find happiness by doing this and that. This constant movement, is the search for happiness.

The Upanishad said that all of life is in constant motion, and that is why it is called Jagat, because the word Jagatyaam means, that, which is constantly moving. Time is constantly moving and  nobody can control it. The mind moves constantly, from the time we are conscious till the time we die. Somewhere in this movement, there is a silence, a quiet. A centre which does not move. īśā vāsyamidaṁ sarvaṁ yatkiñca jagatyāṁ jagat This Supreme Being or Reality, you may call it Brahman, Shunya or Poorna, that which cannot be defined by our ordinary senses, is the root and essence of everything.

Shunya is That, when everything subsides. When the constant chattering that starts with birth and continues till death comes to an end, then, there is Shunya.  Nirvana is clearing the mind of all negative tendencies, agitating thoughts, and distractions, Patanjali called this Chitta Vritti Nirodha - removing all the vrittis from the chitta. Then remains an emptiness inside, into which Reality awakens itself. Reality is always with us, inside us. And it is in search of this that we go around this world looking here and there, looking and not being able to find it.

The source from which this universe has come, the Supreme reality, the Shunya, is complete by itself. So our question is, if it is complete by itself, why am I not complete? If I was complete, I would not be doing anything to complete myself. It is that completeness that we seek by trying to expand our activities in various ways. 

The question is do we find it? The good news is, Purnam Idam. Purnam Adah, Purnam Idam. That means inside us, in the depths of our consciousness, there is an element which is the same Purna from which this world has come.

However, we don’t see it, because it is covered with so many impurities and modifications. If we can get rid of these modifications, you will suddenly realise that the Supreme Reality, lives in the depths of our own consciousness. Can you imagine how freeing even the very thought is, apart from the actual experience?