The Secret of the Hidden Happiness

When the Supreme Lord made man, the crown of all His creation, He showered every possible blessing on him. To each man was given a treasure of happiness. But unfortunately man abused the great gift given to him. This saddened the heart of the Creator. Calling a conference of all the demigods, the Supreme Lord posed the problem before them, "What could we do to make man realize the value of this gift?" "It's simple," said one of the demigods,"Just take it back! You are theGiver, and it is Your gift to man.""Never!", said the Lord,"The gift has been given and it does not befit the giver to take it away." Then another demigod suggested,"Let us hide happiness, where man will not be able to find it.""Where should that be?""In the very depths of the ocean," said another demigod."Man would dive deep into the waters and retrieve it," said the SupremeLord."Let's bury it at the very centre of the earth!""He would invent machines that would bore down to the bowels of the earth and unearth it," said the Supreme Lord. And so it went on. One suggestion after another was turned down by theLord, until finally He Himself came up with a solution. "Let us hide it within man," said the All-Knowing One. "Man will search for happiness endlessly, outside of himself, while he carries it within, all the time. *Only the one who dives deep within himself, will discover the treasure of abiding happiness*!" How can we dive deep within ourselves? In Bhagavad Gita verse 9.2 Krishna says, *raaja-vidyaa raaja-guhyam / pavitram idam uttamam pratyakshaavagamam dharmyam /su-sukham kartum avyayam *"*This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the Self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting,and it is joyfully performed*." Swami Prabhupada (The founder of ISKCON) very wonderfully explains, "*It is said that the executionof devotional service is so perfect that one can perceive the results directly. This direct result is actually perceived, and we have practical experience that any person who is chanting the holy names of Krishna (HareKrishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama,Rama Rama, Hare Hare) in course of chanting without offenses feels some transcendental pleasure and very quickly becomes purified of all material contamination. This is actually seen*."

Activities in Krishna consciousness gives everlasting peace and happiness. Spiritual knowledge and practices are not meant only to make bad people good, but also to make good people better and better till they can become the best they can be. Purification is the key that unlocks the treasure of happiness locked in our hearts. We are not human beings on a spiritual journey but spiritual beings on a human journey. As spiritual beings, we are, by our very nature, sat-chith-ananda, eternal, full of knowledge and full of happiness. So the purer we become, the more we can experience our own joyful nature. When we are joyful within, then we interact with others to share our joy with them. But when we are empty within, we are inevitably craving for external pleasures. So, when we interact with others, then consciously or unconsciously, we tend to manipulate and exploit them to get what we want from them. In fact, when a person is in material consciousness, that is, seeking pleasure externally, his first defaultthought on meeting anyone is "What can this person do for me?" On the contrary, when a person is in spiritual consciousness, that is, satisfied internally, his first default thought on meeting anyone is, "What can I do for this person?" One of the basic difference between God and man is, "*God gives, gives andforgives but man gets, gets, gets and forgets*."

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All Glories to God!