What is Happiness and where does it exist?

Jai Sadguru Deo – very warm greetings and welcome to all the listeners of this extreme across the globe. I am Anurag Deo and I welcome you aboard this weekly online platform of Vihangam Yoga. Dear readers, we\’re on a journey, we have been on a journey right from the beginning consciously or unconsciously whether we realize it or not. A  journey wherein every moment of it has been filled with all kinds of struggle and actions and all of them directed towards attainment fulfillment of one and only one goal – Happiness I remember during the days of my childhood.

I once saw a merchant buying a complete bucket of groceries from my grandfather. That very moment, I wished and I defined what would be happy for me in my life. I still remember that thought process. I went through as a child when I wished that I would be the happiest being in my life. When I would have enough money or as rich as this merchant who was no capable of purchasing the entire bucket of grocery and I carried on with that ambition for a long time in my life until I forgot the same in the attainment and fulfillment of other gross and higher ambitions in my life. From where I stand today probably I have the potential, if I want if I need I can buy a full bucket of grocery. But the definition of happiness has changed for me and has set a different scope for me to be happy. I have defined a different scope now for myself to be happy.

I am very sure in some way or the other all of us can\’t correlate this event,. this memory of my childhood with what we do in day-to-day lives. An ambition is set a wish is made and from the fulfillment of the same comes another quest, a quest for another ambition a definition a different a separate definition of happiness and we keep on redefining happiness throughout our lives.

Today\’s topic is about happiness as to what is the true meaning of being happy is it about having enough materialistic richness around us or is it something more related to the inner bliss. Today we will meditate upon these with our guest speaker of Abhinav Ji, who is joining us today from Sydney Australia Abhinav Ji a software professional and probably a very familiar voice to the regular listeners of this forum. He brings with himself a very unique in a very practical perspective on such topics and we have been benefiting and listening to him for quite some time now and today – it\’s a privilege that we are gonna listen from him his experiences his thought process on this topic of happiness with a Vihangam perspective, so without wasting which time let\’s dive in.

I will hand over the mic to Abhinav Ji, please enlighten us with your thought process over to you I hope you\’re all keeping safe still in this strange time you know we\’re more than a month and a half in now and I hope everyone\’s still engaged still inspired still motivated to continue on their respective spiritual journeys you know I was talking to my friend recently and the topic of happiness came up. This friend of mine we\’ve been friends for about 12 years now he\’s one of my best friends he\’s Japanese he\’s extremely successful he works at a large consulting firm and we were talking about the projects which we\’ve had at work recently. He was telling me about how his company\’s going under a restructuring.

I was telling him about a project which I\’ve been put on and we were talking for half an hour and suddenly we reached a point of the conversation, where we asked ourselves what is the point, what is the point of all this ceremony that we go through in the modern world and life. We were starting to reflect on a story that I shared with him because as we kept talking about you know finance and money and what it means to live in the world. We realized that all of our problems, all of our issues all of our concerns, a man-made a human mate they\’re all because of us were caught in this strange bubble which keeps growing and growing in size as we live our lives and we convinced ourselves that that is all there is to this life.

That we are meant to stay within that bubble we are meant to stay within that circle and that is all there is to be a human. There is a story from our own philosophy about a Guru and a disciple, the Guru one day was sitting in a small village and the disciple came to him and said go there I\’m gonna go to the city. I am bored of this village I\’m gonna explore the new horizons which have come before me the Guru blessed him and said go you will be very successful, I am sure now the disciple he went and with his good as blessings. H.e worked very hard he worked diligently.

He attained all the kind of wealth you can attain he had three mansions five mansions however many he wants he had everything he went back to the village one day and he said to his guru deo you are still in this village look at what I have achieved, why don\’t you come with me. I will make you a mansion I\’ll give you everything there is and the Buddha said I\’m a beloved disciple of mine what you have attained in the city.

I have had this whole time sitting in this small village in this small room what will you give to me the story of Vedic philosophy of the Vihangam Yog is one which aligns with this story as my friend and I continue to speak about happiness we started to wonder what is it that we\’re doing without time. We construct a life surrounded by education by acquiring wealth with all these things but we forget that what we are after is not outside of us, it is within us and for how long are we going to continue this way is what we were arguing between each other we realized we\’ve been talking about the same thing for ten years now what had changed, what has changed is what we were debating and this is what the Guru asks us so you\’ve read you\’ve heard you\’ve seen that there is a difference between happiness, sadness and Anand.

You have heard of this but what is it that you are doing about it are you still remaining in this world in the same way or is something actually changing this is what the Guru asks us and yet the nature of existence of the mind is such that this story becomes entertainment. It becomes something we hear and we tell other people just like I have today but it does not change anything within us. Spirituality is not entertainment.

We are not here sitting between each other discussing the truth, discussing the Swarved, discussing how we should live our lives just because we like to hear it if that is why unfortunately at one point-in-time YouTube or Netflix or something else will take priority. That is how this little works the mind and the soul are separate the way in which they experience happiness is separate, what we experience day-to-day as we just heard the Swarved of it that happiness is sensory it appears from the outside.

Anand is that which appears within the soul, it emerges from the soul from inside of you it doesn\’t come from the outside it emerges like a flower blooms within you that are Anand, Sukh and Anand are completely separate topics and experiences the droplet which we experience day today and the ocean which we have left is not the same thing. So as we continued speaking my friend and I.

We came to a conclusion that yes we have to live in this world because you cannot renounce everything and say I\’m gonna be a yogi even in the Vedic philosophy it has been forbidden for anyone to do this and there is a very good reason for this if you today decided I\’m gonna go to the jungle what are you going to achieve.

You are going to be left with your thoughts, you are going to be left with your mind what are you going to achieve nothing your mind is just going to be more active, is going to be even more destructive and you will completely lose sight of who you are. The jumble is not the solution it never was and it never will be so this concept that in a toy in order to attain happiness you need to go to the jungle. I\’m sorry the Vedic philosophy forbids this only when a guru and all realized master says that you are now ready to go and do the Tapsya then does a disciple go to the jungle and do the Tapsya not when they want to not when they\’ve decided for themselves, oh I\’m gonna renounce everything and go to the jungle become a yogi this isn\’t a career change.

So our philosophy is much too deep to look at it through a modern land. The concept of happiness of Anand that is all spirituality is and yet the nature of the mind causes us to forget what we are doing. So my friend and I as we discussed we came to this conclusion that yes we can\’t renounce the world not only because the very philosophy of happiness forbids us but because if you today renounce the world let\’s say you do become a yogi let\’s say- are you going to ignore the sadness which is present in the world today and if you do that are you really a yogi are you really a person who understands the philosophy of the Supreme Being.

If you are able to close your eyes and ignore all that has happened in this property all those people who are suffering then what value does your yogic progress have and this is why you receive in the greatest Yogi\’s have all left something behind as we heard last week from Shrimant Ji there is a legacy there is a Seva up which they offer to this world there is this concept that a yogi does not cry a yogi is always the most strong.  There are so many stories of Yogi\’s we have cried and cried because they are feeling the pain of another soul to be a yogi is not to ignore the sadness of the world it is to take it in and do something about it.

Anand and the path to Anand to show someone that is the highest form of Seva in this universe forget the universe, beyond the universe. You know there was a once an old woman and I think I\’ve told this story very recently as a well-woman old woman looking outside of her she\’d her heart for her needle young man comes along asks her what are you looking for and she says I\’m looking for my needle he asked where was it when you last saw it and she says inside of my heart and he says then why are you looking outside the heart and she says that\’s all I know how to do.

Do we know how to discover inner happiness? do we know how to go within do you even know what that means? and I\’m not asking anyone here I\’m asking myself. Do I even know what that means we can spend all of our lives going from place to place eating cuisine to cuisine feeling one texture after the next it\’s never going to be enough so if you know that what are you going to do about it? If you know that happiness is not something which is found outside of you is something found inside of you what is your next step it\’s not going to the jungle the next step is first to understand what the path to the inside is how do you go inside what does it mean to go inside is to reverse the flow of your conscious energy.

There is a Bhajan we hear from time to time some of the disciples Vihangam Yoga singing which is the declaration of Sadguru Sadafaldeo Ji Maharaj. In which he says that if you regularly practice meditation. I will take you to that on earth. I will take you to that on Anand. That is the declaration of the Sadguru in this same Bhajan says – Surati Ulati – now these two we can spend all day speaking about this Surati being the conscious energy of the soul Ulati meaning to reverse to invert. what does this mean? the Sadhguru is saying that in order to reach this Anand, you have to take your soul the conscious energy of your soul which by means of the mind is going outside you have to reverse its floor and take it inside. In the first stage of behind the mind. We stop our minds outside the body. In the second stage behind the mind, we stop the mind inside the body.

In the third stage of another mind, we take the mind upwards to the to its source at the end of this stage we completely absorbed the mind into where it comes from after this there is no more delusion, there is no more lack of clarity about what it is you need to do because you know who you are now this is known as self-realization in some philosophies but the science is you take your mind upwards and you absorb it into its source. The Vihangam Yog then speaks of two more levels of progress the fourth being and the fifth being all within the conscious zone not of this Prakriti, which is limited. In that conscious zone which is unlimited where the ocean of bliss is so vast that it is like describing the scent of a flower there are no words. You can maybe try and explain their scent of a flower by relating it to other things but this is incomparable in the first Doha the Swarved itself the master says that this supreme being is indescribable and incomparable this means.

You cannot pick up anything in Prakriti anything beyond Prakriti. Place it next to the supreme next to the Anand of the supreme and say there is a similarity because he is everything and everything is him. What are you going to compare? Sir what is the message here the message is Maya and Mann they are extremely powerful and that the day that we accept this rather than saying I can defeat the mind the day we say this is difficult the day we say that I need the guidance of a master that is the day when the path to of them begins to open up. You know we can talk about the one two three four five stages of the younger mule we can sit here all day referencing you know the experiences people have.

What do they all ultimately say one thing that the sadguru is all you need the master and the Masters and the Master\’s care is all you need. If you own a state where you\’re wondering am I progressing spiritually, am I living a spiritual life what should you do you should sit still in one place and assess how light you are. If there is any heaviness in your body if there\’s any heaviness inside of you it is probably a sense of ego, a sense of belonging that this is mine, a concept that you can control something and ill faith that this is who I am.

A yogi when they sit still become so light that they become empty and they become so empty that only one thing fills them up that Anand that\’s the science of spirituality how do you become light empty filled with Anand that\’s it you know it\’s interesting like if you look at science itself the pull of gravity is defined as the gravitational constant multiplied by the two masses divided by the distance between those masses square. What if a mass has zero weight there is no force there is no pull there is no association. We have to become that zero empty light zero nothing will have an effect on you you will just be in Anand and we\’ve heard these terms nothingness, zeroness completeness these all point to the number zero and what do we always try to be in the world a billion.

I\’m gonna be a trillion no. No this is not the right place then what you have to become to be zero and to be complete is zero and so this science is you know one which makes me meet myself unhappy sometimes with the life I\’m living. I look at the way I think about work I look about the look at the way I think about and involve myself in this Prakriti and I wonder what am i doing what are you going to get from this and then after a bit of you know internal argument a bit of shouting of myself. I then come to my master and say please guide me. So happiness and Anand can be achieved in the feet of a master. All we need to do the Masters made it very simple meditate twice a day and you\’ll become zero that\’s it you have become one or a billion sorry you\’ll become zero that\’s the philosophy as far as.

I was due so when I finished my conversation with my friend we agreed that the world we live in the way it is the way it\’s set up we\’re encouraged to get happiness from the outside world only. You have to have all the things you have to earn everything you have to be like Elon Musk like Bill Gates you have to have all the money that\’s when you\’ll be happy why don\’t you go speak to Bill Gates why don\’t you speak to Elon Musk ask them are they happy no they have moments of sadness too so what are you doing and so we said to ourselves we have to go on the inner journey and sure we\’ll live in this world and get all the wealth we want but it would be used for other people. So that they can achieve Arland the biggest thing which shows how unintelligent the human species is that there are trillions of dollars in the atmosphere but people with zero money.

What does that say about our intelligence as a species it says that we are the most unintelligent we\’ve created societies and cultures and economies or we don\’t even know how to give people a dollar and we judge our happiness and our status on the basis of this fake number there is much more to life than this, and in one moment we can decide for ourselves that we are going to say to Prakriti you\’re there and I\’m here you exist but I also exist and I\’m gonna go somewhere else the philosophy has laid it all out what we need to do it\’s been given to us meditate experience becomes zero and go back to where you\’re really from. This is the philosophy of Vihangam Yog the mind of happiness and next time I talk to my friend I\’m sure we\’ll talk a little differently so that\’s all. Jai Sadguru Deo.

I have for today yesterday and let\’s continue thank you so much of Abhinav Ji for these great enlightening thoughts on this topic today and yes after all this is struggle to achieve happiness in our lives. It\’s all about being zero and one li 0 this race seems to be futile at the end when one realizes that after doing so much after putting so much of energy in the attainment of these matristic ambitions. I\’m still missing that bliss I\’m still not having that inner bliss the feeling of being satisfied Sadguru Sadafaldeo Ji Maharaj says in Swarved the encyclopaedia of a spirituality

Chhan aavey chhan jat hain, Maya jag sukh rang..

Nitya sahaj Sukh kaun hain, Jamey rahat ek dhang..

From Swarved

All that pleasures created and available with this materialistic creation a short-lived and temporary. It comes in life and it goes after a short moment of time. It never stays permanently with us none of the so-called happiness defined bias and derived from this creation. The external world is permanent so then what is that sook what is that happiness after the attainment of which one continues to be in a state of permanent inner bliss irrespective of what\’s going on outside what\’s happening outside very rightly brought out today by of Abhinav Ji in also directed by Sadguru Sadfaldeo Ji Maharaj.

It is the way of the inner journey of searching this bliss inside, what it actually exists instead of wasting all the consciousness in the external creation where it cannot be found where it doesn\’t exist. Vihangam Yoga offers all this to humanity in very simple steps as Abhinav Ji, can wait to us ten minutes of meditation morning and evening that is all that we Vihangam Yoga, ask from you that will be all for the day today thank you to all the listeners for taking out some time in your busy lives and for being with us on this platform we\’ll meet again on the same platform while the same Channel next weekend until then I wish you to stay safe stay busy and stay healthy. Jai Sadguru Deo

Presented By- Anuragdeo Ji (Japan)

Abhinav Ji (Australia)