HAPPINESS MANTRA

Chapter 1 – A PLEASANT LIFE What is a pleasant life? The common man wants to lead his life according to his will; in his opinion, this means a pleasant life! We must appreciate that this interpretation is very important because it immediately establishes a direct relationship between our daily routine life and pleasure! But do we really need to define everything afresh? I do not think so because generally speaking, every idea, every term and every concept has been analyzed, described and defined by our great philosophers, saints and thinkers! These are enshrined, along with the greatest truths realized by them, in various treatises and books! Unfortunately, most of us never open these; we pack them up very respectfully and ceremoniously in expensive silks and offer our prayers to them. Do we realize that this amounts to showing contempt towards these great books? These books are considered as holy, religious treatises and are respected as enshrining within them greatest principles and spiritual teachings! India boasts of a rich heritage of numerous such books written by devoted saints who have been bringing those teachings within reach of the common man by elucidating the teachings in a language understood by the common man and in a manner which can be easily adopted and practiced by him in his day to day life! For the benefit of the illiterate masses, saints have been educating them by touring the entire country for ages and giving discourses, composing devotional songs and organizing other similar communication. The authors of these great books were real stalwarts; they were gifted souls who were born with unique intelligent insight and an urge for finding the ULTIMATE TRUTH; spiritual realization came to them easily. Sant Dnyaneshwar created the great treatise „DNYANESHWARI‟ at the age of 16; this is perhaps the best commentary on BHAGWAD GEETA. The ULTIMATE TRUTH, which eludes great ascetics even after they perform penance for thousand years, was realized by great spiritual souls like Dnyaneshwar. We know that scientists, thinkers, psychologists and philosophers all over the world have delivered to humanity a very rich treasure of knowledge; possibly, there is no subject under the sun which has escaped the scrutiny of these great people; name a subject or an idea and one would find many books written on it. Many of the conclusions and findings which emerge from this vast ocean of literature are no different from the teachings propounded by our saints from time immemorial. As science advances day by day, this identity gets fortified stronger and stronger. Our great saints have been trying to educate the common man in light of the knowledge realized by them; this has been a continuous process, every age has its own set of problems and a different ambience and knowing this, our saints translate the age old knowledge into the language of the prevailing age so that the masses are able to assimilate that knowledge and can make use of it in their day to day life. As a counselor trying to sort out family problems, I had an opportunity to experience some glimpses of that knowledge. My one and the single aim in writing this book is to acquaint the common man, particularly the modern youth with those glimpses, with all respect to the great men of our great country! I am thoroughly convinced that this book will bring you immense peace and prepare your mind to experience and enjoy every moment of your day to day life! Mind & Pleasure Modern science has reached a very important conclusion: “MIND IS AN IMAGINARY SPACE! All our thoughts, passions, emotions, feelings and sentiments are born in the BRAIN; before these materialize in actual concrete actions, they must be fitted in a detailed plan of action; this process of preparing the plan is carried out in that space which is called the MIND. It is in this space that the aim of each action is defined; the manner in which the action has to be enacted and the speed with which the action needs to be carried out are also decided here; the possible effects of those actions and the severity of those effects are assessed in the same space; preparations to face all those effects are also made here! Before all this can happen, a great vigorous churning of thoughts, feelings and emotions takes place in this very space!‖ If this space is large, sensitive and capable of handling all situations, the person is wise; this person is prudent, practical, realistic and very balanced in his thoughts; by nature he is calm, affectionate and keen to help others; he has genuine respect for the rights of others; he acknowledges the noble principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. When the thoughts, feelings and emotions born in the brain materialize into actions without the intense churning in the mind, the result, generally, is disastrous! Later the person may explain his erratic behavior by pleading that his mind was not in normal state; I would rather say that his mind did not exist for that period of time! My dear friends, pleasures have arrived at your doorstep; before you start asking me questions like ‗how‘ and ‗why‘, you must welcome those pleasures; they have arrived at your service because you have done some good work before; this is the fruit of your own deeds that pleasures have arrived for you to enjoy, this is the practical working of the LAW OF KARMA which enables you to understand the precise worth of your actions in the past!