Arthur Schopenhauer, a German philosopher of nihilism, who is best known for his 1818 work ‘The World as Will and Representation’ had relentless negativity or cynicism suggesting the absence of values or beliefs. The philosopher stated that “Failing to achieve the lasting happiness and joy which we thought would befall us upon attaining our goals, the novelty of being free from the suffering associated with the striving after goals would wear off — but when this happens, the dreadful burden of boredom takes over. With no desires or goals to keep us in the state of striving, we are stripped of the delusional or yet consoling belief that happiness awaits and we succumb to anxiety and despair.”
The ancient Indian philosophy coded millenniums ago through the Upanishads vastly differs from Western thinkers. The fact is that happiness is real for it is absolutely experienced by every human and, had we not known it, we would not have pursued it on a daily basis to retain it a little longer at any cost. But, in the process, we lose track and so we chase after it desperately, trying to seize it again and again — alas, we fail more often. My Guruji, who is 75 years old, has spent his lifetime investigating the quintessential query of philosophy — “Whether eternal happiness is real and whether it is possible for a human being to achieve it at all.” He started his journey at the age of 19 — enquiring directly from several learned and exalted souls whom he had come across — indulged in understanding the coded Upanishads, comparing the several commentaries penned by great Gurus to decipher the real meaning beneath every word of it.
My Guru, in one of his discourses, said that the reason we fail to achieve continuance of happiness is that we believe that it depends on an object, place, person or sometimes a goal or a condition related to time. He declared that happiness is a state of mind and that permanent happiness (Nitya Anandam) —perpetual and unblemished happiness — is possible only by understanding at what stage one was happy. He stated that the choice or the liberty is within ourselves and that, unfortunately, we pursue it elsewhere at the wrong address, unknowingly. Like, for instance, we assume it to be in indulging in our favourite food, we assume it to be in the company of a particular person, and we travel long distances assuming that happiness could be attained at a faraway location or in movies and on television shows, in our success or the success of our dear ones — the list is endless. If such happiness really emanated from all such things or persons or locations as stated above, we should be continuing to engage in those activities perennially to remain in such a happy state. But after a few servings, we detest the food we so enjoyed at first. After relations with a person at a particular time, we find that the companionship is no longer a pleasure. We keep moving from one locale to another in search of a more stunning setting, we raise our goals from one level to another and so on, but finally, we end up losing the trail of happiness, clueless about its narrative, and become desperate, ruminating over past instances as if you were happier then. We create a memoir within our mind that we were once happy and wrongfully conclude that we are not in such a state at present. We cannot stretch such an instance or instances of ‘happiness’ till the present, hence we drown in despair.
The reason we slide into despair at a later stage is because we no longer have the appetite for the very same dish we once savoured, we no longer enjoy the company of people we once treasured, and we find no relief in those locales that we once found solace. But what happened was that a new zeal or interest or target or wish was generated afresh and until such a quest is, in return, quenched or appeased, we return to an ‘unhappy’ state of mind. So from where can such happiness be experienced and contained forever to stay with us permanently as long as we live?
It is our misunderstanding that once our quest is appeased, we shall be happy ever after. The truth is that happiness never emanated from all those we once wished for. A young man finds a girl of his dreams and is head-over-heels for her. He marries her and, at a later stage, they no longer feel the love they once had. It’s the same between friends, between business partners, between leaders and followers, between brothers and sisters and so it prevails in every path of life, hence all those instances do not fall under the category of (Nitya Anandam) perpetual and unblemished happiness. It is not the change in our attitude but it is the false recognition, for if the same was true to itself and pure, it should have continued in the very same bliss that started from a particular trice.
My Guru explained the intangible element of happiness, giving the example of ‘thirst’ and ‘want’. When we feel thirsty, we search for a glass of water and, at that moment, we are eager to quench that thirst, which is equal to the state when you pursue happiness. Once you find a glass of water and you have it to your satisfaction, the experience of happiness is ‘felt’, but you could get thirsty again after some time. That state of mind of craving for a glass of water is a ‘limited’ agenda and also a biological requirement, but you did experience happiness. Such instances are also felt when we want to have our favourite dish or drink, and that too at a particular joint or place.
Now, let’s switch to another analogy. You like the company of a person and crave it for you to feel happy while conversing with them or listening to what they say or do, but for some reason, it erodes with the passage of time and, one day, you feel that the company of another person is more delightful. For several reasons, you feel happier in new company than in earlier ones. Now, coming to the test results, did the water (from the first analogy) or the company of the first person (from the second analogy) bring you happiness? Yes, of course it had brought happiness and we did experience it, for had we not experienced it, we would have not pursued it. My Guru states that it is only our state of mind that feels happiness from people or things. It is, in fact, the will of our mind that triggers happiness and not people or objects. Hence, the element of happiness is within us for we experience it within our mind.
Schopenhauer opines that these continuing wants or desires end at a point when the subject achieves everything he desires and then falls into despair. He states that, Accordingly, we see that almost all men, secure from want and care, are now a burden to themselves, after having finally cast off all other burdens. They regard as a gain every hour that has got through and, hence, every deduction from that very life, whose maintenance as long as possible has till then been the object of all efforts. Boredom is anything but an evil to be thought of lightly; ultimately it depicts on the countenance real despair.” At this point, one can relate to certain personalities like Elvis Presley, Robin Williams and so on, who, having achieved the status of ‘global celebrity’ from utter poverty in their childhood, could not hold the dreadful boredom of having no goals to achieve. That’s the Western philosophy which is not complete in its laboratory test when compared to our own Indian philosophy of the Upanishads.
My Guruji admits that the understanding that he had at his early age had undergone a sea of change in the past 50 odd years and, finally, he succeeded in deciphering it from the Upanishads. But it was possible for him alone for he conditioned himself to the required circumstances that the Vedas were originally meant to be written for both to be learnt and taught. Now, I have begun to participate in the experiment taught by my Guruji and it is giving results. It took five-odd decades for me to identify my real self until the day I understood the path navigated with the help of my Guru, or else I could have been trapped in this painful maze eternally. Now, my quest is whether it is humanly possible for me to achieve such perpetual happiness. I start to try as a young student.
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