Pearls of Wisdom

True Happiness

Na áÐÚòÀyÀã satyÀã sukhasya gandhamÀtraã api upapadyate

(Ādi ŚankarÀcarya's commentary on Bhagavad GītÀ , Chapter II. Verse 66) Translation

In the presence of thirst for objects, there cannot be even tinge of happiness. Note by the Editor

We have an understanding that happiness comes from the objects of desire when we come in their contact or when we get them. In other words, our happiness comes from the objects of desire. If that was true how the same object loses the capacity to give us happiness? First piece of chocolate gives us happiness. The second, the third or the tenth loses the capacity to make us happy. Rather it makes us angry and miserable if forced. Happiness without any object as is felt by a child or by all of us in deep sleep, needs analysis. Unless we realise that the source of all happiness is within us, we will keep on running behind the objects and thereby we keep on suffering. Once a person is free from ‘I’ and ‘mine’, only then can he expect to be happy; the rest of us look at mirages thinking it to be water.