Want to be happy? Become sad! || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

Question: Are satisfaction and happiness same or different?

Speaker: They are the same as far as our life is concerned. Go into this. Both are related to achievement, both are related to the state of non-fulfillment because we are restless right now. ‘Why I am restless?’ Appreciate this. ‘What is the cause of all restlessness? When am I present? Am I present five minutes back? When am I present?’ Right now. ‘When am I living?’ Right now. Can some of you try to live in the past? Will someone attempt to be in the future? When are you living? When is all your existence? Present. Where is the mind? Past. So, necessarily there is a sense of friction, conflict. Getting it? The mind is lost in other worlds. The real world is here. And our one world is lost in multiple worlds, all kinds of slavery, thousands of influences upon the mind. We are lost in multiple worlds, here, there. Reality is here, mind is wandering there. So, non-fulfillment.

The mind thinks that somewhere out there, where it is wandering, lies happiness also, lies satisfaction also. And what is that satisfaction ? That satisfaction does not lie there. It lies here, being in present. The deeper the mind is wandering, the more it is clamoring for happiness.

Any one of you who has been into the situation when you were wearing a wrong-sized shoe or very tight jeans throughout the day? How does it feel when you get rid of that in the evening? It feels great. Now the deeper is your pain, the more relieved you will be. Our happiness is like this only. The deeper is your anxiety, the more happy you will feel. ‘I was very nervous before the results came.’ The moment the result comes, how do I feel? I start dancing. Now this intensity of dance is directly proportional to the anxiety you felt. Alright.

All happiness that your mind feels is directly proportional to how unhappy you are. So, if you want to be really happy , become totally unhappy. This is called the law of duality. Want to get the real taste of food? Become very hungry and then get some food, and then even rubbish will feel like the most wonderful delicacies. That is the nature of mind. It deals with this and this; opposites. And it knows nothing except one thing as the opposite of the other.

It knows happiness only as the opposite of sadness. Let me tell you a joke. Someone asks Santa, ‘Where does Banta live?’ He says, ‘In front of my house.’ Alright. ‘Where do you live?’ The reply is, ‘In front of Banta’s house.’ Alright. ‘Where do both of you live?’ The answer is, ‘In front of each other’s house.’ This is the human mind, it knows nothing. It knows everything just as the opposite of the other, so essentially it does not know anything. Are you getting it?

You are so dissatisfied right now because you are not present in the now, you are seeking it here and there. Keep seeking you will not get it. You may experience the period of so-called satisfaction , they will not last, they have never lasted for anybody. It’s the law of existence. Like a pendulum, when it is journeying towards this side, the journey towards another side has begun. When you are moving towards happiness, actually the journey towards unhappiness has begun.

Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yog’ session. Edited for clarity.

show_less