By AiR Atman in Ravi – Happiness Ambassador and Spiritual Leader
The pursuit of happiness is universal and timeless. We all want to be happy. Yet few of us actually are. Most of us experience joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, loss and gain, sun and rain — all in cycles. So we are happy and sad, happy and sad, over and over again. The question is — is it possible to be happy always? The answer is yes. It lies in going beyond pleasure and fulfillment to discovering the purpose of life.
The one thing that we don’t understand is that pleasure is not happiness. Unfortunately, we confuse the two. Pleasure is ephemeral. It comes and goes. But true happiness is eternal – it forever flows. Pleasure comes from success, achievement, people, possessions, places and things. But it is very short-lived. Pleasure is only the first peak of happiness.
Therefore, we must evolve and go beyond pleasure to fulfillment — the next peak of happiness. Fulfillment comes from living a life of contentment, fulfilling our needs and not getting carried away by greed and desires. The Buddha said that desire is the root cause of suffering. We must, therefore, learn to control the mind, the mind that desires and craves. The more we desire, the more the disappointments. Desires are insatiable. We want one thing, then another. Happiness doesn’t depend on what we have but how we feel. Happiness comes from a life of gratitude and positivity, from living in the now.
Of course, not all desires are bad — it is material, worldly desires for things and achievements that undo us. We are never satisfied. Never satiated. Nothing is enough. We must, thus, exit the race to be an ace and transcend our desires to acquire and achieve more and more. We must focus on what we have and count our blessings. Happiness is about living with fulfillment. Fulfillment leads to peace and peace is the foundation of happiness. Peace is within us. It is our mind that steals our peace of mind by jumping from thought to thought, by yearning and yelling. The mind must be tamed. While fulfillment gives us happiness that is more enduring and more lasting than pleasure, it is not everlasting happiness. We still suffer. If we seek eternal happiness, we must go beyond fulfillment.
Spiritual teachings emphasize that real happiness arises when we realize the purpose of life. When we transcend the body, mind and ego and realize the truth of who we are —the Divine Soul, not the body or mind. Then we overcome the triple suffering — the pain of the body, misery of the mind and agony of the ego. We realize the truth about God — that God is a Supreme Immortal Power. We are a part of God. We are all one — there is no you and me. We are one with God, people, nature — everything. When we live in consciousness of the truth, we experience true bliss, SatChitAnanda — a euphoric bliss unknown to the common person. When we live with this awareness, we move beyond the chase for temporary highs and rest in lasting joy. We live in the present, detached from outcomes, anchored in purpose and ever – connected to the Divine.
Therefore, spiritual masters teach us that true happiness comes not from chasing happiness, but from purpose. They emphasize the importance of going within—through meditation, self-reflection, contemplation and awareness—to cultivate peace and attain self-realization.
Recognizing the interconnectedness of all beings deepens compassion and purpose. Detachment from outcomes and living in the present bring freedom and contentment. Above all, aligning actions with one’s core spiritual values fosters integrity and lasting fulfillment. In essence, happiness is not found outside but arises naturally when we live in harmony with our true self and higher purpose. So, we must remember that life is about evolving from pleasure (achievement) to peace (fulfillment) to purpose (Enlightenment, self-realization). These 3 Ps are the keys to true ‘Happpiness’ — and that is why Happiness is best spelt as Happpiness!