Happiness – III

 

Is ‘meditation’ or ‘Sadhana’ essential for happiness? Is it necessary to meditate? Is being good or kind to others not enough to attain happiness?

First of all, I’d say, if you are happy, if you really are happy, if you are fulfilled, if you are happy within yourself, if you are independent of anything external and still exude happiness, and then you don’t have to do Sadhana.

There is no necessity for doing Sadhana because the very need for doing Sadhana arises because one finds that one is not happy.

Even if he’s happy – the only problem is, if you look carefully enough – you’ll find that this happiness that you’re talking about is usually fleeting. It is not with us all the time. Therefore we think, it is essential to find that happiness and peace which is lasting and not fleeting. Then only one looks for Sadhana.

All Sadhana is not mere meditation.

Sadhana has to be complimented by one’s activity in the outside world. How one deal with other human beings and so on. That’s also an essential part of Sadhana, not merely sitting closing your eyes and pretending to meditate.

In fact my master used to tell that if you can sit down with closed eyes without moving for a full hour everyday and can do it for ten years in the same way and you don’t hear the crying of a hungry child in your neighbourhood, all your meditation has gone waste.

You understand what I mean?

Which means meditation – the search for happiness – is successful or shall we say is most effective only when mind begins to change. That is essentially Sadhana and meditation, not merely the mechanical practice of sitting down.

Of course there are meditation techniques that are practised to calm the mind and make one turn inward. But the real meaning of Sadhana is to begin by wondering if there is an essential being in us? Our true consciousness – a spark of the divine!

And if it is so, the same spark of the divine has also to be in all other human beings.

Therefore the true sadhak not only meditates in the way his Guru has taught him to, depending on his needs. He also begins to function in the world with the understanding, although weak in the beginning that the divine spark which is in him, is also in all living beings.

And, therefore to serve, to help, to be kind is also a form of worship of that divine spark in other living beings. So kindness and doing good to others should go side by side along with one’s meditative practices. They are not against each other, rather they complement each other.

Now to the question, ‘is being good to others not enough to attain happiness?’

I would say that If you really, by doing good to others, by recognizing the divine spark in others, If you really feel happy, then you are already an advanced soul who needs very little of any other kind of meditation. But if you look carefully enough, you see that this is not always so. Sometimes you are kind, sometimes you are not. You are not uniformly kind all the time.

Most of what we call kindness that takes place or is expressed – is only when we are not threatened or when we don’t feel that something is going to be taken away from us or that our rights are being trampled upon.

Sometimes also kindness doesn’t consist in giving something to somebody who is in need. It is also sometimes necessary to make the person who is in need to understand the need to stand on his/her feet and find what he is looking for himself. That may require sometimes a little bit of unpleasantness.

When the child who is not doing well is scolded by the mother or the father, it is not being unkind. It is kindness. So one has to be very careful when one defines in being kind.

But I can tell you that anyone who meditates, anyone who’s moving towards the spiritual goal – by the very nature of one’s Sadhana - becomes kinder, more helpful. (He) does good to others and definitely at least not cause harm to others.

Step by step, gradually, it may not happen in a day, he or she is discovering the spark of the divine which is in all living beings which is form of or part of God, either through service or through worship. The spark of divine which is to be worshipped through rendering service.

Also most people are themselves not full of happiness. So what will they share with others? It is only when you are complete that you can give. When you are not complete what will you give to others?

Therefore what  I mean by Sadhana is first to find that completeness, which doesn’t mean that while you are trying to find that completeness, while you’re performing your Sadhana, you should not be doing good to others. It’s not what I mean.

You should (do good) because that completes your meditation. If you have done one good deed and sat down and meditated, that day’s meditation is 100 times better than when you have caused harm to somebody.

As you go deeper and deeper into your Sadhana, whatever be the Sadhana , that’s taught to you personally by your personal teacher, you’ll find that you’re becoming not only happier, but also a kinder, more caring and a better person.