Happiness is just a glimpse of the absence of suffering. Real happiness comes when you cultivate it, just like a gardener cultivates his flowers. Our normal happiness is ephemeral, preceded and succeeded by sorrow, whereas Ananda (Joy) is freedom from both. Real happiness is freedom not merely from sadness, but also from superficial happiness.
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“You have never enjoyed happiness in full freedom, Little Man. That’s why you consume it. You take no responsibility for the preservation of your happiness. You haven’t learned (you never had a chance) to cultivate your happiness with loving care, as a gardener cultivates his flowers and a farmer his wheat. You consume your happiness.” ~ Listen, Little Man!
Questioner: Acharya Ji, can you please clarify, what does it mean to enjoy happiness in full freedom? Is it the conditioned mind of the little man that stops him from cultivating and preserving happiness? The author also indicates that in the company of little man, cultivating happiness is a little hard. Please help me understand how the little man could grow from being a consumer of happiness to a cultivator.
Acharya Prashant: Happiness is a glimpse. Glimpse of what? Glimpse of the absence of suffering. That’s why we like happiness. That’s why everybody says, “I want to be happy.” Why do we say we want to be happy? Because our default state is of suffering. And man suffers much more than any other being in the world. No being is capable of suffering as much as man is.
