Art of Living

Why postpone happiness to tomorrow?

DNA, 1st November, 2009

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Every living creature wants to be happy. Whether it is money, power or sex, you get into it for the sake of happiness. Some people even enjoy misery because it gives them happiness!

To be happy, you seek something. But despite getting it, you are not happy. A school-going boy thinks that if he goes to college, he will be more independent, free and, therefore, happy. If you ask a college-going boy whether he is happy, he feels that if he gets a job, he will be happy. Talk to somebody who is settled in his job or business, and you will find that he is waiting to get a perfect soul- mate to be happy. He gets a soul-mate, but he now wants a kid to be happy. Ask those who have children if they are happy. And they say: how can they relax until the children have grown up and have had a good education and are on their own? Ask those who are retired and done with all their responsibilities if they are happy? They long for the days when they were younger.

All of one's life is spent in preparing to be happy someday in the future. It's like making a bed all night, but having no time to sleep in it. How many minutes, hours and days of your life have you spent being happy from within? Those are the only moments you have really lived life. Those were perhaps the days when you were a small kid, completely blissful and happy or a few moments when you were surfing, swimming or sailing or on a mountain top, living in the present and enjoying it.

There are two ways of looking at life. One is thinking: "I'll be happy after achieving a certain objective." The second is saying: "I am happy come what may!" Which one do you want to live by?

Life is 80 per cent joy and 20 per cent misery. But you hold on to the 20 per cent and make it 200 per cent ! It is not a conscious act, it just happens. Living in the moment with joy, alertness, awareness and compassion is enlightenment. Being like a child is enlightenment. It is being free from within, feeling at home with everybody, without barriers.

Don't judge and don't worry about what others think of you. Whatever they think, it is not permanent. Your own opinion about things and people keeps changing all the time. So why worry about what others think about you? Worrying takes a toll on the body, mind, intellect and alertness. It is like an obstruction that takes you far away from yourself. It brings fear and fear is nothing but a lack of love. It is an intense sense of isolation.

This can be handled by relaxing and doing some breathing exercises. Then you will realise that you are loved, you are a part of everybody and you are a part of the whole universe." This will liberate you and the mind will take a complete shift. You will then find so much harmony around.

To find harmony, it is not as if you have to physically seek it by sitting somewhere for years. Whenever you are in love, your mind is in the present, you feel joyous. At some level, to some degree, everybody is meditating without being aware of it. There are moments when your body, mind and breath are all in harmony. That's when you achieve yoga. The art of living lies in the present moment.