What is happiness?
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Extract from the booklet Who Am I?
Happiness is the very nature of the Self; happiness
and the Self are not different. There is no happiness in any object of the world.
We imagine through our ignorance that we derive happiness from objects. When
the mind goes out, it experiences misery. In truth, when its desires are
fulfilled, it returns to its own place and enjoys the happiness that is the
Self.
Similarly, in the states of sleep, samadhi and fainting, and when
the object desired is obtained or the object disliked is removed, the mind becomes
inward-turned, and enjoys pure Self-happiness. Thus the mind moves without rest
alternately going out of the Self and returning to it.
Under the tree the shade
is pleasant; out in the open the heat is scorching. A person who has been going
about in the sun feels cool when he reaches the shade. Someone who keeps on
going from the shade into the sun and then back into the shade is a fool. A
wise man stays permanently in the shade.
Similarly, the mind of the one who
knows the truth does not leave Brahman. The mind of the ignorant, on the
contrary, revolves in the world, feeling miserable, and for a little time returns
to Brahman to experience happiness. In fact, what is called the world is
only thought. When the world disappears, i.e., when there is no thought, the
mind experiences happiness; and when the world appears, it goes through misery.
- Quotes by Sri Nisargadatta about pleasure pain and real happiness book 'I Am That '
- Gunas and happiness by Sri Aurobindo
- Conscious freedom from Pleasure & Pain by Swami Sivananda
- Freedom from desire the origin of ego by Nityamuktananda
- Your nature is happiness by Nityamuktananda
Peace love harmony