"Looking for Happiness in the Wrong Place", from the book "How To Be Happy All The Time", wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda (Cont'd from earlier post)
People forget that the price of luxury is an ever-increasing expenditure of nerve and brain energy, and the consequent shortening of their natural life span.
Materialists become so engrossed in the task of making money that they can’t relax enough to enjoy their comforts even after they’ve acquired them.
How unsatisfactory is modern life! Just look at the people around you. Ask yourself, are they happy? See the sad expressions on so many faces. Observe the emptiness in their eyes.
A materialistic life tempts mankind with smiles and assurances, but is
consistent only in this: It never fails, eventually, to break all its promises!
* * * *
As a man allows himself to depend increasingly on circumstances outside
himself for his physical, mental, and spiritual nourishment, never looking
within to his own source, he gradually depletes his reserves of energy.
* * * *
Possession of material riches, without inner peace, is like dying of thirst
while bathing in a lake. If material poverty is to be avoided, spiritual poverty
is to be abhorred! It is spiritual poverty, not material lack, that lies at the
core of all human suffering.
* * * *
The material scientist uses the forces of nature to make the environment of man better and more comfortable. The spiritual scientist uses mind-power to enlighten the soul.
Mind-power shows man the way to inner happiness, which gives him immunity to outer inconveniences. Of the two types of scientist, which would you say renders the greater service? The spiritual scientist, surely.
* * * *
Pure love, sacred joy, poetic imagination, kindness, wisdom, peace, and happiness are felt inside first in the mind or the heart, and are then transmitted through the nervous system to the physical body. Understand and feel the superior joys of the inner life, and you will prefer them to the fleeting pleasures of the outer world.
All physical pleasures arise on the surface of the body and are experienced by the mind through the nervous system. You love the outer pleasures of the senses because you happened to be captured by them first, and then you remained their prisoner. Even as some people get used to jail, so we mortals like the outward pleasures, which shut off the joys from within.
For the most part, the senses promise us a little temporary happiness, but
give us sorrow in the end. Virtue and inner happiness do not promise much, but in the end always give lasting happiness. That is why I call the lasting, inner happiness of the soul, ‘Joy’ and the impermanent sense thrills, ‘Pleasure.’
Outer environment and the company you keep are of paramount importance. The specific outer environment of early life is especially important in stimulating or stifling the inner instinctive environment of a child. A child is usually born with a prenatal mental environment. This is stimulated if the outer environment is like the inner environment, but if the outer environment is different from it, the inner environment is likely to be suppressed. An instinctively bad child may be suppressed and made good in good company, and vice versa, while an instinctively good child placed in good company will, no doubt, increase his goodness.
Have you thought seriously why you love fleeting, deceiving pleasures in
preference to the lasting peace and joy of the Soul—found so distinctly and
ever-increasingly in meditation? It is because in the beginning you happened to cultivate the habit of indulging in sense pleasures and did not cultivate the
superior joy of the inner life found in meditation. Understand and feel the
superior joys of the inner life, and you will prefer them to the fleeting
pleasures of the outer world.
* * * *
It is important to differentiate between your needs and your wants. Your
needs are few, while your wants can be limitless. In order to find freedom and
bliss, minister only to your needs. Stop creating limitless wants and pursuing
the will-o’-the-wisp of false happiness. The more you depend upon conditions
outside yourself for happiness, the less happiness you will experience.
* * * *
Fostering the desire for luxuries is the surest way to increase misery. Do not be the slave of things or possessions. Boil down even your needs. Spend your time in search of lasting happiness or bliss. The unchangeable, immortal soul is hidden behind the screen of your consciousness, on which are painted dark pictures of disease, failure, death, and so forth. Lift the veil of illusive change and be established in your immortal nature. Enthrone your fickle consciousness on the changelessness and calmness within you, which is the throne of God. Let your soul manifest bliss night and day.
Happiness can be secured by the exercise of self-control, by cultivating
habits of plain living and high thinking, and by spending less money, even
though earning more. Make an effort to earn more so that you can be the means of helping others to help themselves. One of Life’s unwritten laws is that he who
helps others to abundance and happiness will always be helped in return, and he will become more and more prosperous and happy. This is a law of happiness which cannot be broken. Is it not better to live simply and frugally and grow rich in reality?
#paramhansayogananda #autobiographyofayogi #swamikriyananda #anandamumbai #happinesstips #wisdomyogananda
Grateful thanks to Ananda Sangha, Mumbai and Facebook.
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