7 Keys to the treasure of happiness
I am sure by now all of you will agree that it is possible to open the treasure of happiness.
1st key to the secret of happiness :
I take personal responsibility of my own life.
I am not going to wait for situations to change – if I wait for the best situations, probably I will have to wait for the whole life and can never be happy.
I am not going to wait for people to change. Are they likely to change in one year or hundred years? I have no idea.
Spirituality teaches – I am responsible for creating my own thoughts and feeling.
1st key : I am going to create quality thoughts and quality feelings for my own happiness in my inner world. I am not going to wait for the world outside to do something.
2nd Key to the secret of happiness :
We human beings are blessed with this beautiful quality i.e the ability to make choice. Say, a cow can only be a herbivorous. Animals have to live based on the capacity that has been provided for them. Very monotonous.We have a choice to do whatever we want.
In any situation, we have a choice to be happy or to be unhappy. We were unaware of this knowledge and we thought we have to go up and down in the tide of life.
Examples are,
- Cricket match – wife had a choice to be happy. ( I have elaborated these examples in my earlier series of this article).
- Women suffering from cancer. She had a choice to give good wishes of happiness to her family or to be guilty and being a burden to the family saying – I am sick and all of you have to take care of me. In any tough situation – we have a choice to make.
Let people behave however they want – I have a choice to respond. My correct choice of response is going to bring me peace of mind, inner contentment and happiness within.
If I am going to react to everyone’s behaviour without consciously making a choice – my reaction is going to bring more reaction. We all know the story of action, reaction and more stronger action.
All these might sound like a lot of head work. But the only thing we need is awareness.
A small story…………
A swamiji was going to the Himalayas. He told his disciple to take care of his ashram in his absence.The disciple agreed.
Later, he went and asked the guru – please tell me some tips to manage the ashram well even in your absence.
The guru was in mauna vrata and wrote on a piece paper something. The discipline saw and it was just a word – Awareness.
The disciple took the paper and went away. Later, he again went to the guru to say something before and after the word awareness.
The guru wrote – Awareness, Awareness and Awareness.
Actually no one is pushing us to do anything.We don’t have to blame and complain. We have a choice. If we are aware of what we are doing – we will be able to exercise the choice.
2nd key : I can make choices if I have awareness – I am the master of my own destiny.
3rd key to the secret of happiness :
I know that I am a unique personality , unique individual.
Whatever I am having – no one is having it. Others also have the treasures that I have . We will see that later.
There is no one in the wide whole world who has a personality like mine. I am not saying better or worse. I am just saying unique.
No one is carrying the same memory that I hold in my mind in my treasure stock. Because each one has a journey of life which is very very different and very very unique.
Tap history of mine is very different from yours.
When I know that the contribution that I make to the world around me is also absolutely unique.
We might ask – how this uniqueness will make us happy?
Our pure energy of happiness gets drained because of comparison.
Some day at one moment we were fine / feeling good and in the next movement we started to compare our behaviour with someone else. As soon as comparison starts probably the next thing that will start is competition. As soon as competition starts – the next thing that is likely to start is criticism and I want to prove that I am right and others are not so perfect.
The uniqueness of my own personality is the 3rd key.
Look at the mango tree. Even though all the leaves are mango tree leaves. Every single leaf of the tree is different. Can we try matching up each leaf?
Probably we are going to have a tough time and we are going to spend our whole life doing it.
Each one will be slightly different and each one will be unique.
Human beings have not been created in a mould. Human beings have been created uniquely.
Each one is absolutely unique. When I appreciate that – there is no Ego about it. Then, I appreciate the uniqueness of each and every human being.
4th key to the secret of happiness :
When we feel that we are responsible we have the choice to make and we are unique – we are going inside than having the attention outward.
The more we do this – the more we go inside. The first 3 key helps us to go inside.
The more we go inside we realise the inner being and we start giving quality time to look at ourself.
This is an indicator of how we value ourself ?
If we value someone – we make time for them.
If we don’t value them – we make some excuse saying I have got this and that etc.
If I value someone – I am going to sort out and make time for them. Because I appreciate being with them.
How much time do I give myself?
Am I too busy to give time to myself. If I am – then, this is a clear indication of how much I value or don’t value myself.
When I start realising it and I go inside – I discover the beauty of the self. The treasures that I didn’t know about or forgotten about or ignored about.
When I go inside – there will be turmoil of thoughts from here and there, anxiety, concerns and fears. When we perceive little bit of patience and still go inside ; we come to the center point of stillness – the point of peace – OM. My original state of being of peace – OM SHANTI OM.
Once we discover the treasure of peace – we also discover the treasure of love.
I came home after work. The people at home are the people whom I love the most and value the most. My mind is restless. It hasn’t come to grips with the things that were happening throughout the day. There are too many things that it has been bombarded with like economic climate, problems with government etc. Instead of leaving those in the work place ( Which is what I should have done ). I came home with these bagages and trying to take out time with my family.
Try to give them something of yourself.As the children grow up they can feel the treasures that you have shared.
Our precious memories of childhood are not the toys we played with or even of the entertainment places that our parents took us to. The memories will be of the time they spent with us.
The things they shared with you ; the things they thought you. Those are the precious memory that we hold in our heart.
Is this the legacy that I am leaving my children ?
Am I giving them my quality time and attention.
I don’t know whether they will be saying – I got this quality from my mother, this one from my father and this lovely quality from my grandparents.
Then they are able to keep those special gifts with themselves.
Instead we bring home all the burden and load from work.
In that state of peacelessness, we forget that families are for loving and sharing. When they don’t get the love and care from us. They seek it outside with their friends, amusement, entertainment which are not necessarily the best things for them.
In a way, we push them in that direction.
They would not go outside – if we have created that family and that environment in which they will be sustained.
The prerequisite to experience love is peace.
When I can experience peace within then I am to share love with a generous heart and open heart with others.
These values and virtues can be made upto 100’s and 200’s or we can condense them upto 12 basic core values or universal values.
Or we can bring it upto 5 essential values – peace, love, purity, truth and joy. Each one of these come in sequence. When I experience peace within – I start experiencing love within. When I experience love – the power of love enables me to clean myself. When I am pure I am able to get the glimpse of truth. Each one of us have innate wisdom within us. That is true. What we have to do is to access it. When I go through the process of discovering the treasures of peace, love and purity – yes, then I understand the truth ; the wisdom within. Joy is naturally part of my life. I don’t have to seek the happiness outside. When I seek these inner treasures which money can’t buy .We think when we go to wonderful paradisiacal island we will be able to find peace. why we are not getting it ? because we have carried all our bagage with us. Along with the bagages we are carrying the i phone – which will keep sending us messages which are not comfortable. We become addicted to all these toys of technology. When these things are invented we are told – they save our time and energy. You have to tell me – is that true? I don’t see it – people have become addicted and slaves to all these. I am not going into the detail. You please work it out for yourself.
Sometimes we think money can buy us love. Even though ridiculous many think they can buy their partners love or children love. We later crib saying – I gave them so much still I am not getting the love.
We first need to accept and respect the family members as they are. Only when I accept and respect them with dignity – I win their love. I can’t buy their love – I cant force their love. I can win their love by accepting and respecting them with dignity.
I feel love is a long way in the family relationship – first lets learn to accept and respect them for what they are and give them their dignity.
Purity will clean all the negativeness, truth will give the direction through the inner voice. Finally, we get the joy which cannot be snatched by anyone.
4th key – Very consciously make time for yourself – recognise the inner being – spend time looking at the treasures that are their in your own inner world.
5th key to the secret of happiness :
Things I should be giving attention to – awareness of the divine, my attention to my own inner world, my thoughts and feelings – I am too lazy to do what is important for me.
Because I am lazy to do this inner work ; the best excuse I give is I am busy.
Of course, I have to be busy. Otherwise, I am not a very useful person to the society. Being busy is a positive attribute.
Busy with all the unnecessary work leaving the most important task of our life.
Even though we know it is important ; we ignore it because our intellect is lazy. I could deal with it very easily – but I engross myself with things which make me move from the most important things of life.
We need to spend only one hour in a day ; the rest of the day we can do all our work.
Making time to be with the creator. How often do I make time to be with creator?
Take a piece of paper. Draw a circle and keep a dot in the center. Write the names of the people whom you interact on a daily basis. Make another circle bigger than this one. The center point is the same – concentric circle. Around the second circle write the names of people whom you interact on a weekly basis. Then another circle – where you write the names of the people whom you interact only once a month. Finally, in this picture see where is god?
When was the last time we had a heart to heart conversation with the lord?
In someone’s funeral. I think that is usually the time we remember him.
If I am meeting a friend only in funeral – what sort of a friend is that. What is my relationship with god? I think you can understand what I mean.
If I love a being then the relationship is not restricted to one day of the week or once in a month etc.
A relationship is a relationship – it is on going. It isn’t in the morning this person is my mother and father and in the afternoon when I am busy they are not my mother and father. Its an ongoing relationship and it goes on through out my life.
In the case of god, it is a relationship which is eternal. The eternal bond that I have forgotten about. Now, it is the time to bring back into my focus.
When things go wrong – I have this little bit of space. I wonder – what is that which is actually happening? What is this scene telling me? or may be you don’t – you just worry and be fearful.
If we see what is happening on in the world outside – everything is topsy turvy. Again we wonder – what’s going on?
It is only a very simple answer – we have forgotten about the most important relationship throughout the history, through all ages and across the universe i.e. the relationship with god.
All the signals that we get from all the directions tell us that we need to focus on the relationship with god.
To do that – firstly, I have to identify my inner being. In that awareness I can open myself to the presence and the experience of the divine.
My own eternal identity is not a physical one. I am spirit not matter ; inner being is the being of light.
This body interferes in the connection with god.
When we transcend from the awareness of the body and come to the awareness of the spirit – we can connect to the god – who does not have any physical form ; who does not have any corporeal form i.e the source of light of love the supreme.
As we reconnect and discover our own inner treasures through the presence of the treasures of the divine that are available for us. The things that have gone wrong in the world can very easily be put right. That is not impossible. That is our mission in this moment.
6th key to the secret of happiness
Its time to share. Once we discover the treasures that god is making available for us – we need to share little of that love, little of the peace and happiness .
When we share it multiplies and comes back to us.
When I share a little bit of my time with someone and show some compassion for them – the blessing that we get from them leave us with a great deal of contentment.
We have a choice to watch TV or play tennis or share some of our time with someone – the contentment that we get in sharing and caring is very different.
Share some words of inspiration and encouragement with the people around you.
The 6th step is the step of learning to give. (Already I have written a huge article on giving without calculating).
Just see what we have. We can share our time, good wishes, good feeling, encouragement and all of these. There is something more that we can do is become an instrument and in that we can let our EGO out of the way. We receive the love and peace of god and shares it with others. That is a different quality of love that seeks no return. It is totally unconditional and not judgemental. What we give multiplies and comes back to us not only from the person receiving it but also from the one above. We get a double benefit.
Become an instrument and try giving a little. For sure you will become addicted to it.
You will understand the many blessings it brings and what a joy you get. The life will be filled with constant happiness in each moment of the way.
7th key to the secret of happiness
There is a time and season for everything.
At this time there is more suffering, more misery and more pain in the world than ever has been in human history. I feel it is a fact.
Every individual and every country is impacted / affected by sorrow in someway or the another.
Whether is mental, physical, emotional or spiritual – it feels that everyone is wounded. All of us have a scar.
Scriptures confirm that it is the season for healing.
Let me be able to allow god’s love to heal me and let me be an instrument to be able to give time and heal others.
It is the season to take god’s love and compassion and change the culture of the world and a create a culture of compassion and co operation.
The world is ready for this.
The disaster that we keep hearing about in the world or the climate change is a reflection of our abusement to the world.
The external things are the signal to make us think in a different way. Is there an alternative to the way in which we have been living ?
From commercialism consumerism, materialism the season now is the return to spirituality.
We recognise the season for this. We do what the season demands. If it is the season for planting we plant.
Spirituality is the only solution for all our problems. This is the only way in which we can create happiness for ourself and also for others.
One discontented person – you know what your home / office feels like and one person with genuine happiness & they are able to create repels of happiness around them.
Note:
What are the seven keys?
In short, they are turning inwards, turning upwards and turning outwards.
3 keys to push our attention inwards they are taking personal responsibility, making choices in any situation and realising we are unique.
4th key is to look for the treasure inside.
5th key is to connect to the supreme.
6th key is to share.
7th key is to realise – this is the time / season for healing.
umasvedantam 