We live in an unhappy and discontented age. There is a lack of direction and a lack of faith. Happiness is what everyone is seeking, but the majority seeks in things which are evanescent and not real. No happiness was ever found in the senses. Happiness is only found in the spirit. Vedanta emphatically states that freedom is our real nature and it is only God or the experience of our real self that can give us permanent happiness. "Man may try through his technical advances to roll up the sky itself as if it were a piece of leather, but with all that, he will never succeed in achieving peace and the end of his sorrows without realizing the luminous Divine within him" (Svetasvatara Upanishad, VI-20).

The Predominant Urge of Mankind

The predominant urge of mankind is for happiness and this impels man to struggle against the limitations and imperfections of life. It is in a word, the eternal craving for freedom. Consciously or unconsciously, each creature is hearkening to that voice of eternal peace---"Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."

The Present Unhappy and Discontented Age

We see this struggle for freedom recurring at three different levels. First, at the physical level, man wants to be free from discomforts, hunger and death. Secondly he wishes to be relieved of mental sufferings---anguish, fear, boredom, the nervous breakdown that is the outcome of a fast life. Most of our lives are enveloped by fear, which hangs around us like a thick layer of fog or a dark cloud. Various kinds of fear---real or fanciful---exerts a weakening and inhibiting influence on our lives, making us miserable. Anything that helps us in lifting this specter of fear, even a little, is certainly a great blessing. We live in an unhappy and discontented age. There is a lack of direction and a lack of faith. This has been highlighted in this way: "Never before was man so educated, yet so ignorant; so profusely equipped, yet so insecure; so much in plenty, yet in such penury; and so highly civilized, yet morally so low."

Spiritual Experience Alone Can Give Us Permanent Happiness

Thirdly, the most significant struggle of man is in the realm of spirit. Though he may not be aware of it, he is seeking freedom in God. Our true being is divine. The greatest common factor in all great cultures is the general acceptance of the eternal presence of God in us. This constant sense of the presence of God in us is indeed the common ground on which the great temples of cultures have been erected and respected. The yearning for immortality is constantly pressing-us onward towards joy and liberation.

Vedanta emphatically states that this freedom is our real nature and it is only God or the experience of our real self that can give us permanent happiness. Every great saint in the history of the world has emphasized this one tremendous statement: "The kingdom of God is within." St. Paul says: "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind". It is an excellent summation of the psychology involved.

Happiness Not in the Enjoyment of the Senses

Sense pleasures are condemned only because they build a wall between the mind and the soul, between knowledge and ignorance. Much of our struggle in spiritual life is involved in making our mind pure from unholy desires which, because of their destructive nature, hinder spiritual advancement. Most of us are obsessed with the things of the world; instead of God, we seek the pleasures of the senses. To us, life is superficial and without real meaning. It becomes only an endless round of pleasure-seeking, serving no other purpose. Swami Vivekananda says: "Happiness, we see, is what everyone is seeking; but the majority seeks in things which are evanescent and not real. No happiness was ever found in the senses. There never was. a person who found happiness in the senses or in the enjoyment of the senses. Happiness is only found in the spirit."

Need for Moral and Ethical Life

Why should we be moral or ethical? If the ideal of perfection is not accepted, if we do not believe that kingdom of God is within and that perfection is to be achieved here and now and not after we die, then certainly life has no meaning for us. Without morality, without inner check, the very foundation of ethical life cannot be laid.

The expansion of consciousness is not possible without moral life. The great Rarnanuja defined good and evil thus: Evil is that which contracts us, and good is that which brings expansion. "Expansion is life," Swamiji says, "contraction is death." Swamiji explains evil as that which hides the Atman, the truth of God within, and good as that which helps to unfold it.

Desires can be Sublimated

Through renunciation, through restraint of the flesh, through development of our will, we can exchange fear and anxiety for the benevolent protection of Divine Law.

In order to grow spiritually, we must renounce our attachment to those things which distract our attention from God. This does not mean killing the senses. Sri Ramakrishna says: "So long as the passions are directed towards the world and its objects, they behave like enemies. But when they are directed towards God, they become best friends of man, for they lead him to God. The passions cannot be eradicated, but can be educated." A noted social thinker says, ""Educators are guilty of violence when they tell students that they have no free soul but are passionate creatures. To be a victim of intellectual robbers who despoil man of his Divine image is to create gravest social problems."

Chasing the Chimera of Happiness

"In some oil mills in India, bullocks are used that go round and round to grind the oil seed. There is a yoke on the bullock's neck. They have a piece of wood protruding from the yoke, and on that is fastened a wisp of straw. The bullock is blindfolded in such a way that it can only look forward, and so it stretches its neck to get at the straw; and in doing so, it pushes the piece of wood out a little further; and it makes another attempt with the same result, and yet another, and so on. It never catches the straw, but goes round and round in the hope of getting it, and in so doing grinds out the oil. In the same way you and I who are born slaves of nature, money and wealth, wives and children, are always chasing a wisp of straw, a mere chimera, and going through an innumerable round of lives without obtaining what we seek. The great dream is love; we are all going to love and be loved, we are all going to be happy and never meet with misery, but the more we go towards happiness, the more it goes away from us."---Swami Vivekananda

Books by Swami Tathagatananda:

1. The Vedanta Society of New York -- A Brief History, 2000
2. Mahabharat--Katha (Bengali), 1998
3. Ramayan Anudhyan (Bengali), 1996
4. Healthy Values of Living, 1996
5. Meditation on Swami Vivekananda, 1994
6. Meditation on Shri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, 1993
7. Glimpses of Great Lives, 1989
8. Shubha Chinta (Bengali), 1988
9. Smaran--Manan (Bengali), 1987

You can order these books from The Vedanta Society of New York.

Other books on Vedanta can be purchased from any Vedanta Center.

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