Synopsis
Man has been in pursuit of happiness from time immemorial. Many people derive their happiness from various cultural activities like singing, dancing, festivals, celebrations, etc., whereas some people feel happy when they achieve something, whether in sports, academics or profession. Some people find their happiness while doing their duties due to a feeling of satisfaction, whereas some people feel happy about their virtues like honesty, integrity, truthfulness etc. There is a full spectrum of happiness, however, nowadays many of us find that happiness does not last long and we feel some kind of sadness, frustration or other negative feelings for quite a significant amount of time. Even those who feel happy would like to increase their happiness further in order to feel the thrills, joy and all kind of positive emotions. In fact all of us would like to be happy forever and to achieve that, it is important to understand the concepts, methods and science of happiness.
Taking inputs from modern psychology and spiritual thoughts, happiness can be categorized as happiness from virtues, satisfaction in life, positive emotions and bliss. Achieving happiness in all four categories is the mantra to remain happy forever. Through virtues, a person keeps feeling happiness for a long time, for example, if a person remain honest during his professional life, he will feel happy about it, throughout his life. . Those who fulfil their duties honestly towards their profession, family, society etc., will feel extremely satisfied and happy. Similarly, positive emotions coming from dance, music, celebrations etc. make us feel happy during the activity. Happiness from inside or bliss comes from meditation and other spiritual practices. Although, happiness can be achieved through various techniques, but for it to be everlasting, we should ensure that others around us also feel it.
Bliss i.e., the Happiness coming from inside can be understood with the help of yogic literature, which explains different layers of our existence. The five layers are physical body, energy body, layer of mind, intuitive layer and the layer of bliss. In addition to this, there is a material world around us and there is a source of bliss. The layer of mind comprises of psyche, intellect, consciousness and ego. Through meditation or spiritual practices, we start refining our ego and cleaning our consciousness. This leads to realizing our existence in layer of bliss and leads to self realization. Yoga is the path of realizing our existence in all three layers. Maharishi Patanjali categorized the knowledge of yoga into eight limbs, which are yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and Samadhi. The last three limbs i.e. dharna, dhyana and samadhi come under the realm of meditation.
As we learn to become happy through virtues, satisfaction, positive emotions and bliss, we are able to avoid stress to a large extent and manage our time in a better way. Many times we fall into the trap of stress due to mental overload, but there are techniques and lifestyle choices which can bring us back on track. We can have a lifestyle which ensures our happiness as well as our health and prosperity. This can be called the track of happiness, which comprises of sports, cultural activities, travelling, relationships, professional duties, drawing satisfaction and feeling of bliss. If we do these things regularly, we can lead a healthy, happy and prosperous life.
The most critical thing in happiness related efforts as described above is the meditation. There are various techniques for practicing meditation, and Heartfulness meditation is one of them, which is very effective and suitable for modern times. Lot of research has been carried out in the area of meditation and it is a well established fact that meditation improves our mental health and happiness, which in turn helps in maintaining good physiological health. Researchers have conclusively proved the advantages of meditation with the help of psychological as well as physiological parameters like heart rate variability, EEG, etc.
There are a large number of spiritual organizations around the world, which help people de-stress, experience bliss and realize divinity within them. Organizations like Heartfulness, Vipassana, Art of Living, Brahmakumaris, Divine Life Society, Chinmaya Mission, Isha Foundation and Rama Krishna Mission are only a few among them. When a person wants to reach the level of realizing the Self, it becomes important to be guided by a Guru or a capable spiritual master. The master can guide the aspirant in his/her efforts as well as speed up the progress. This progress depends on our belief system and affects us at various levels including the biological level. We are made up of trillions of cells and each cell goes through the transformation process, changing us completely from inside.
As a matter of fact, people from all walks of life and social strata have been found to be happy. The happiness and bliss encourages us to adopt a lifestyle close to nature, which keeps us healthy as well as sustainable for future. Concepts of spirituality and happiness can also be very useful in management, optimizing the capability of individual, team and organization by removing stress and improving inter personal skills and commitment. Starting from happiness and moving towards bliss, adopting healthy lifestyle and positive management techniques, we can really make our world a happy world, where there is no enmity, no jealousy, no feeling of hatred and people live happily with each other as well as along with the whole creation. The beautiful creations of nature including plants and animals find their happiness and meaningful existence along with the human beings, who will be caring for them. Such a world will have abundance of pure water, pure air, natural food and everything else we hope to find in an exotic place. Happiness theories are the basic method to bring life back on track and evolve a society where everyone will be happy forever.
Happy Forever: The Art and Science of Everlasting Happiness
By Dr Narendra Kumar Arya
The book will help you find your everlasting Happiness
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