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Quest for happiness

CHENNAI: One of the prerequisites for embarking on scriptural study (Vedanta) with the objective of attaining liberation from bondage, which is due to ignorance of one’s essential spiritual nature, is the need to discriminate between the eternal and the ephemeral. This discerning capacity is necessary to understand man’s quest for happiness. He tries to find it in his worldly pursuits but in vain because all except the Self (Atman) are transient in nature. Hence the joys of the world and even that of heaven are short-lived, and it is only by realising his spiritual nature which is the source of lasting bliss that man can find fulfilment.

In his discourse, Sri Goda Venketeswara Sastri said when this fundamental truth was inculcated to a spiritual seeker by a preceptor it might seem on the face of it very simple to understand and follow. But, if one pauses to consider it will become apparent that every action of an individual is done with the idea of continued welfare, which has its basis in the belief of permanence of one’s body. Though all of us know that one has to depart from this world one day and that one cannot take along anything, our actions are always to the contrary. Even when this reality dawns on one during brushes with human mortality in daily life, attachment to one’s kith and kin and possessions do not become any less.

Thus the entire span of human life is frittered away in pampering the body by running after creature comforts without realising that one can never be satiated by any amount of material acquisitions. Another consequence of this engagement with worldly pursuits is the accrual of Karma in the form of merit (Punya) and demerit (Papa) as a result of one’s actions. Accumulation of Karma in turn leads to rebirths to enjoy its fruits and thus the never-ending cycle of transmigration only gets perpetuated. Is it then possible to prevent this entanglement with the world by remaining quiet? No, not even for a second, says the Bhagavad Gita categorically, for man is impelled to think and act according to his predisposition, which generate Karma. One can put a stop to this vicious cycle by identifying with the Self (Atman) within, which is eternal in nature.

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