Blissful Mind

Happiness has different meaning in different contexts for different people. But the happiness that people experience is always temporary. One can think of any simple example to prove this. Ever lasting happiness is always eluded and pursued by each and everyone.

One basic reason why happiness cannot be ever-lasting is because life is full of change and change is the only aspect in life that is constant. If we see happiness as part of this change than to our dismay its always temporary and only until the next change occurs, which usually is to unhappiness.

Another aspect we must consider with this regards is, our mind is the master that decides if an event is happy or sad, joyful or sorrowful. Our mind, with years of experience, can mold in a happy situation being sad and in a sad situation being happy. There is a difference between mind and intellect that we need to know before we head forth - Mind creates the emotions to experience and intellect creates thoughts to ponder on. No matter even if our intellect may tell us that our neighbor has made profit with his hard work, the mind can make you feel good or bad based on if the neighbor is a friend or a foe. Intellect goes with the facts, maybe real or imagined. Mind goes with our nature that we have built with the experiences we had. Now remember, nature in itself is change-oriented so mind may not have the same nature all the time.

That tells us the fact that mind can change its decision of being in a happy situation or a sad situation based on the nature of the mind at that particular time. Time here means being in a particular spot on a scale that shows our past, present and future. We may think of past and regret or celebrate on the things we experienced, which again influences the mindset in the present time. Similarly we can think of the future and worry and influence the mind in the present time. The ideal, real, truth is that the present is the only factor that should decide the mindset. A mind clear of the regrettable past or the future worries will be calm in the present. The present is constant and never changing.

सथ चित आनंद

Sath-Chith-Aanand is a common term used in Hindu philosophy. Sath means Real or Unchanging or Truth. Chith means Mind or Consciousness. Aanand means happiness or blissfulness. Digging deeper in relation to the topic I am exploring here, making a statement "A peaceful mind is always happy" makes sense.




The work is strongly influenced by the work presented at http://www.chinmayasaaket.org/articles/gurudev/index.php