Happiness Summary

Read more about Happiness from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

What is Happiness?

Happiness is a condition of gladness, sense of inner ease and welfare, contentment, a sunlit life—it is more quiet in its nature than joy and delight.

Types of Happiness

Happiness in the ordinary sense is a sunlit state of the vital with or without cause. It is of vital origin; it is impure and depends on circumstances. But real happiness is of divine origin; it is pure and unconditioned.

A Consequence not an Aim

Superficial happiness and material success, however desirable to our vital nature, are not the main object of our existence. The aim of human life is to discover the Divine and to manifest it. Naturally this discovery leads to happiness; but this happiness is a consequence, not an aim in itself. And it is this mistake of taking a mere consequence for aim of life that has been the cause of most of the miseries which are afflicting human life.

Happiness in Parts of the Being

Happiness and good fortune are what the lower part of our vital being most desires, misfortune and suffering what it most hates and dreads. It is the vital which asks and asks and is never satisfied.

In the psychic is the source of constant happiness. Love, joy and happiness come from the psychic. The psychic, the true deep feelings are always satisfied and never ask for anything.

In children the psychic is often very much on the surface and it makes them peaceful and happy. As one grows up, the vital and the mind develop and take on more importance—and then the troubles and sorrows begin.

When the vital being has been touched by the psychic, mere vital pleasure has no longer any interest, and may also be felt as a disturbance and discomfort because of the lowering effect upon the consciousness.

Why is Happiness Important?

As Support on the Path

Try to be happy―immediately you will be closer to the Light. When you are full of peace, contentment and happiness, then there is no room for wrong feelings and desires; your heart is pure.

As an Inner Barometer

The moment aspiration and surrender are not total, you are no longer happy. You feel uneasy, very miserable, dejected, a bit unhappy. This is the barometer! You may immediately tell yourself that an insincerity has crept in somewhere.

Peace, happiness, strength, lightness in the whole physical system. These are the more obvious and normal results which grow as the consciousness grows. One feels peaceful and happy, full of trust, full of a deep and true benevolence, and very close to the divine presence.

How to Cultivate Happiness?

To be always happy, with an unclouded, unfluctuating happiness—of all things this is the most difficult to accomplish.

What is Necessary to Cultivate Happiness?

For a happy and effective life, the essentials are sincerity, humility, perseverance and an insatiable thirst for progress. Above all, one must be convinced of a limitless possibility of progress.

Awakening of Inner Nature

It is only if our nature develops beyond itself, if it becomes a nature of self-knowledge, mutual understanding, unity, a nature of true being and true life that the result can be a perfection of ourselves and our existence, a life of true happiness, a harmonious and beautiful life.

Mastering Desires

One can master desires by giving up all personal seeking for comfort, satisfaction, enjoyment or happiness.

Self-mastery is the greatest conquest, it is the basis of all enduring happiness. If you want to lead a happy life, you must be the master of your lower nature and control your desires and vital impulses; otherwise there is no end to the miseries and the troubles.

Our true happiness lies in the true growth of our whole being, in a victory throughout the total range of our existence, in mastery of the inner as well as and more than the outer, the hidden as well as the overt nature.

Surrender to the Divine

One can obtain true happiness and keep it constantly only by discovering one's psychic being and uniting with it.

A human being is made of many different parts and it takes time and conscious effort to harmonise and unify all these parts. When one surrenders, it is not the whole of your being that does so. Little by little some other part that had not surrendered comes to the surface and the joy of the surrender vanishes. But after some time this part also gets converted and thus the happy condition comes back.

Let us seek our happiness only in the Divine. It is only the Divine's Grace that can give peace, happiness, power, light, knowledge, beatitude and love in their essence and their truth.

Useful Practices

Generosity

The happiness you give makes you more happy than the happiness you receive. Indeed the very act of genuine self-giving is its own immediate reward—it brings with it such happiness, such confidence, such security as nothing else can give.

Gratitude

To feel deeply, intensely and constantly a total gratitude towards the Divine is the best way to be happy and peaceful.

Goodness

Always be good and you will always be happy. But one should not do good in the hope of getting a reward, but for the pleasure of doing good. Then one is always happy, whatever happens.

It is so good to be simple, simply good-willed, to do the best one can, and in the best way possible; not to build anything very considerable but only to aspire for progress, for light, a peace full of goodwill, and let That which knows in the world decide for you what you will become, and what you will have to do. One no longer has any cares, and one is perfectly happy!

In conclusion being happy is the surest way of progress but seeking personal happiness is not the aim of life. The supreme happiness is to be true servitors of the Divine. For it is to the Divine Work that one must exclusively belong because it alone can, give us true happiness.

Content curated by Helen

Read more about Happiness from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.