QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION ON THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

I am told true happiness is in seeking union with god?

We all seek union with god, and desire to merge with our masters. We think this yearning for unity is divine…sacred…very spiritual…but at the very core level it comes from separation! A desire for union and merger only arises when there is some sense …some degree of separation.  When there is no separation where the desire for union? Do we yearn to be one with our self? With our toe? Nose? As long as we seek ‘union’- till this yearning for ‘oneness’ remains -it implies ‘another’!  It implies a master or god to revere outside us ; and paradoxically we remain in separation…the veil however thinned… remains …  and the God-self that I am – that what we really seek- cannot be ..

But surely happiness is in finding or meeting god…outside or within?

Lot of us talk in terms of ‘meeting’ God or ‘becoming one’ with God, but we all have to become aware - that there is no God ‘out there’ to meet or even become one with. We are going to grow into our awareness of being God. In analogy it’s like me saying “when am I going to meet my adult Self, or my older Self!”  But I’m never going to meet them … I’m just going to grow into them surely! So we have to become aware that we are going to grow more and more into our awareness of our God Self; but as long as we desire to meet God or even ‘become one’ with God then you are going to have a God outside you to do that.

What about love? I am told happiness is in loving everyone?

If there’s no God and if there’s no Master then there is no ‘lover’ outside me too! As long as I’m seeking a lover, someone to love outside me then the veils are on! All of us want this one (or more) special person whether it is lover, husband, child, friend… But as long as I’m finding love through another then I’m not love within.

Does that mean we cannot experience or enjoy the love of whom we call others? With a special other? Of course we can! That’s one of the reasons why ‘I/Godself’ individuated into my myriad Selves…to become many points of focus….so that I may experience the Love that I AM! But let us know that the ‘beloved’ is: Self- a reflection- and enjoy it thus! That is true happiness… not dependant on another, yet reflected all around you!

So it does not mean that you cannot have beloveds but when you are Love itself- the lover and the loved- then are you a beloved! And be-loved means what? Be Love! Being love. When you are (being ness of) love, it will reflect in loving relationships-indeed all around -and far vaster and deeper than even that ‘special’ one!  But you will know you reflect self, and thus will you never ‘need’ another to feel, experience, view love, you’ll never ‘yearn’ for another, it’ll just ‘be’. It’ll be a natural beautiful reflection to enjoy when it comes! Like when you pass a mirror in which you choose to take a peek-you don’t carry one around all day to look into! Or Like you enjoy a rose…its fragrance, its color and beauty…if it comes your way… yet you do not require to have a rose? There is no must have, must need… day in day out for your happiness…yet you enjoy it wholly when it blooms in yr garden or vase or bouquet…?

What about abundance…that gives me happiness?

As long as you see abundance outside you it is a veil- but yes you can enjoy abundance-and on the outside- as long as you know it is Self! Self created! Your Reflection! Then there is no ‘need’, no desperation- you know you can reflect when you want, and what aspect you want! That’s the point of existence- to enjoy the infinite, infinitesimal abundance that I am…!

What is happiness?

Happiness covers many states which we tend to club together as happiness! But there are subtle and all important differences, pointed out by many masters and I only reiterate:

Pleasure is physical… physiological.  It can be sexual, it can be food, it can be of other senses, but it is experienced in the body. Thus not only does it run itself out, it is also dependent on some on or something outside you… and in the long run that becomes the problem rather than pleasure. Pleasure is experienced in the lower chakras.

Happiness is more psychological ... it goes beyond the body.... there is a shift to higher chakra's.... it is now shifting to the intangible. Yet something outside you allows you to touch this within you.

Then there is joy; joy is spiritual. And different from pleasure& happiness…as it’s source is within. Yes it will reflect around you, but you will be the source, not the other or outer circumstances. Thus is it is not as transitory or fleeting or undulating…more a pervading sense of being. Indeed it can co-exist with states where everything is not what we would call 'happy' or 'perfect'!

And beyond joy is bliss. It is neither physiological nor psychological nor spiritual. It is what I describe as a state of ‘it is it is’…or what Indian scriptures describe as ‘neti neti’…not this or that… where there is no opposite state which we would call displeasure or unhappiness or lack of joy! Indeed it is our natural state of being....and when all that stands in its way disappears....we are bliss! It knows no division, no other, no time....it is not union with Godself... it is not awareness of Godself...there is no self in bliss!

Enjoy....all states dearest beloveds! Through experiencing all, will we easily expand from pleasure, happiness and joy to bliss...! Do not seek to suppress the former...do not seek to short circuit... we have chosen to experience them all and in that transcend each.. So think... what a beautiful blueprint? Its all about pleasure, happiness, joy and bliss!

Divyaa kummar- edit from a discourse.