Conditions of Happiness

Aum Sairam

The kind of detachment that really lasts is due to the understanding of suffering and its cause. It is securely based upon the unshakable knowledge that all things of this world are momentary and passing, and that any clinging to them is bound to be a source of pain eventually. Man seeks worldly objects of pleasure and tries to avoid things that bring pain, without realizing that he can't have the one and eschew the other. As long as there is attachment to worldly objects of pleasure, he must perpetually invite upon himself the suffering of not having them and the suffering of losing them. Lasting detachment, which brings freedom from all desires and attachments, is called purna vairagya or complete dispassion. Complete detachment is one of the essential conditions of lasting and true happiness. For the person who has complete detachment no longer creates for himself the suffering that is due to the unending thralldom produced by desires.

Desirelessness makes an individual firm like a rock. He is neither moved by pleasure nor by sorrow. One who is affected by agreeable things is bound to be affected by disagreeable things. If a person is pleased by receiving praise, he is bound to be miserable when he receives blame. He cannot keep himself steady under a shower of blame as long as he is inwardly delighted by receiving praise. The only way not to be upset by blame is to be detached from the praise also. Then he does not lose his equanimity. The steadiness and equanimity that remain unaffected by any opposites is possible only through complete detachment, which is an essential condition of lasting and true happiness.

Allah Malik