Happiness Through Spiritual Exertion

Daily Excelsior

Man needs two kinds of things. He needs things, which fulfil his material needs. He also needs things, which are capable of giving him joy and happiness. Spiritual exertion does not satisfy our material needs. Happiness and joy, on the other hands, can be achieved by spiritual exertion only. And yet we entertain delusions. We confuse spiritual satisfaction with material satisfaction. If material objects were capable of giving us happiness, the modern man could have been the happiest creature in the world. Our productive potential has risen sky high and yet we are unhappy. Science and technique have made us more unhappy. The more the material wealth we command, the more unhappy do we become. It is the wealthy people who become. It is the wealthy people who become insane, lose their sleep and commit suicide. It is they who have to take tranquillisers to get a sound sleep. Unlimited production and consumption of material commodities is the root cause of our mental imbalance. We have to do some serious thinking on the subject. Industrially advanced countries tell us that they are capable of relieving us of all kinds of miseries. But even countries have lost the sense of direction. They themselves badly need mental balance and peace of mind.

Of course, we have to satisfy the needs of the body and to support our families. The desire to satisfy these needs is a natural desire. We do not deny this fact. As a matter of fact we have never done so. But, at the same time, we have never accepted sadhna as a pass time or recreation. Sadhna has a purpose. It gives us encouragement; it makes our vision clear and provides us with permanent values of life.

The practitioner of sadhna is always active. He labours to provide himself with the means of life. At the same time he is aware of the fact that he has to avoid miseries which accompany his activities. He wants to shield himself against the reactions to his actions. He dissolves his delusions and attempts to obtain right vision. He is clear about what leads to misery and what gives happiness. That is why he is capable of maintaining his mental equilibrium. Emotional imbalance is the special characteristic of the modern man. He is awfully perturbed. His experiences are continuously punctuated by sweetness as well as bitterness. Sometimes he commands self-confidence and at other times he loses it. This is the result of mental imbalance.

Mental imbalance implies freedom from attachments and aversions; it also implies a sense of equality. Preksha meditation brings about a sense of equality. In it the practitioner feels pleasurable as well as painful sensibilities. But he tries to strike a balance between them. He tries to maintain and strengthen his equanimity. He aspires to be a pure spectator and to command pure knowledge.

The practice of self-exertion does not disturb the ordinary give and take of life. What is done is to wash off the dirt, which has become accumulated in our hearts. One who has achieved some advancement in sadhna will never deceive anybody. He will never habour the feeling of enmity towards anybody. Besides intellectual convictions, he has experienced a higher state of mind. He values spiritual experiences more than anything else. He aims at reconstituting his personality.