Acharya Prashant explains that satisfaction and happiness are essentially the same in the context of human life, as both are rooted in achievement and a state of unfulfillment. He points out that while existence is always in the present moment, the mind is constantly wandering into the past or future, creating friction and conflict. This dissociation from reality leads to a sense of dissatisfaction. The mind mistakenly seeks fulfillment in the external worlds where it wanders, but true fulfillment lies only in being present. He describes the nature of happiness as being directly proportional to the intensity of one's prior anxiety or unhappiness, illustrating this with the relief felt when removing tight clothing or passing an exam after being nervous. This relationship is governed by the law of duality, where the mind only understands things as opposites. Consequently, happiness is known only as the opposite of sadness, and seeking it through the mind is like a pendulum; as soon as one moves toward happiness, the journey toward unhappiness has already begun. He concludes that such periods of satisfaction are temporary and will never last because they are not grounded in the present.
