Lasting Happiness

The saints are always telling us that the happiness we are looking for can only be found inside ourselves. But often it seems very hard to find it there. We want happiness from the world around us. Most of us live with a continual sense of expectation – hoping that this or that situation will improve, that people will change and that we will be able to feel better about life. It is as though we are holding our breath waiting for a happiness that never really comes. So, are we really looking in the right direction? We are never satisfied. Yet we cannot stop ourselves, we cannot help ourselves – or can we?

Masters live in the here and now. They are living the best of realities – always in touch with the spirit, which is the force behind everything that happens. In pain and difficulties, in pleasure and joy, they are always in contact with life’s inner mystery. They radiate powerful currents of love and positivity, affecting everyone who comes in contact with them. Naturally we are attracted to them. Who would not love a person with these qualities? They awaken in us a sense that there is far more to life than what we are usually experiencing. They create in us a longing for a higher state of consciousness and they pull us towards experiencing that reality.

Can our love for a Master give us lasting happiness? We all know that we will have to change if we want to experience what they are experiencing. We cannot carry on forever being obsessed by the trivial goings-on of the world around us. Maharaj Charan Singh used to say that we do not have to leave the world; we just have to forget it!

We need to shift our focus to the power behind the scenes, the current of life behind our eye centre. Whenever we hold our attention at the third eye we feel a difference. When we still our thoughts and are absorbed in the Master, we feel tremendously happy. So why should we be sad? Obviously we can’t blame the world for our unhappy condition and put the burden of improvement on the Master. When we make the effort to tune in to his presence within, we feel tremendous relief. We feel released from all our desires and problems. As soon as we feel the flow of grace, we realize that it was always there, that it is a guiding force with nothing but our well-being at heart.

It is easy to confuse the Master’s outward presence with salvation, thinking he will do it all for us. The face of the Master is indescribable it spontaneously evokes all the best emotions in our hearts. It is very sweet. But it is not really ours to keep! His real face is found within the brightness of our own beings. It is a hard fact to accept that the real Master only exists inside ourselves, in the core of the Shabd; for us there is no other Master.

Our love today may not appear to be very strong – but doubtless much deeper currents of love run below the surface of our beings. The Master will see us through this experience of life and help us succeed in our search for the divine. Love beyond imagination and the brightness and wonder of the Creator – these are within our reach. If we can just follow his advice and look inward, then we will know this happiness for ourselves. Trying to make contact within is the only way to help ourselves.

In the beautiful words of Maharaj Charan Singh:

Real prayer is not by the lips, not by set words.
It comes from the heart, and the heart knows the eloquence of
silence. The real prayer is surrender to his will.
_{Legacy of Love}

Lasting happiness begins when we struggle to direct our love towards him in meditation.

O you, alone in the sky like the Sun. Come.
  Without your face the garden and the leaves are all yellow. Come.
Without you, the universe is dust and powder. Come.
_{Rumi, Thief of Sleep,translated by Shahram Shiva}