Gari Saaj-Gurudev Sarathi ji (translated from Hindi to English by Surbhi kesar)
The happiness that you think about, wish for and desire of, all the time is just one side of the coin. And while struggling for this happiness, fighting the world and yourself, you do not get reminded of the other side of this coin, maybe never. That’s why, when you achieve success sometime after a struggle; you assume it to be a result of your hard work. This you think is a fruit of your hard work. But maybe it is not so. If it was so, then whenever or wherever someone struggles, makes an effort and works hard, that person for sure should be rewarded and he must be successful in all endeavours. But in reality, success is only for a small proportion, such that it doesn’t even seem to exist. The paradox with it is that when hopelessness and failure comes your way, you act very strange, as if this loss and failure was destined for you, your fate was such. This all has been caused by the ‘I’ foe. Only some work was left undone, otherwise ‘I’ for sure had achieved, ‘I’ had for sure happened.
But how could it happen that your hard work is not rewarded whereas someone puts in no effort but achieves a lot. No effort put in but great rewards are reaped. Because there exists fewer proofs to establish failure after hard work but there exist numerous examples of those who have achieved a lot by way of working in a much simplified manner. The world is full of people and the especially the ones who are successful. I am talking about the same thing that you address as happiness. The child born with a silver spoon, with no struggle of his and then the son accumulating more wealth, the inheritors as the owner of the mill, owner of the chair, owner of land, the lords of the ships and ports. There are those too on whom lies the onus of the financial stability of the society to some extent. They have no idea how much wealth, luxuries, comforts and what all they possess.
When you or the 3rd person is living in his world of success, the fear of failure always dreads him. A happy person is more worried as he fears to fall in pangs of sadness; the much dreaded other side of the coin.
In Happiness, the shadow of sadness looms large. And in sadness exists the desire of happiness. This is a swing in which everyone swings. But this entire swing and the period of swinging are nothing but to be busy wandering in world of thought and imaginations. Because the accumulation of wealth, land, materials etc is not synonymous with being happy. Its excessive accumulation is the causal agent of inequality, worry, ego and other vices. And a large population suffers because of being devoid of the basic necessities. But an even larger population suffers on being devoid of happiness.
Success and Failure are mere worldly words, which are fed into you every moment from all directions. These don’t sprout from within you. Sadness and happiness are mere words fixed and organised and echoed and projected by the society itself, to experience, realise, and to float in the society’s flow downstream, whose meanings cannot be comprehended while desiring them. You must have heard people shouting out happiness happiness and sadness sadness but at least ask the thousands and millions the meaning of the word, then you would realise that people use the words merely for their selfish meanings and probably kill their meaning, their real actual meanings.
What could be the meanings in pregnancy of sadness and happiness, success and failure and if the core or pregnancy meanings of such words are developed, then to an ordinary human and to saint, then meanings of these words would be quite contrary. The meaning of happiness is quite huge for a person flowing in the society’s flow and for the one who is in deep slumber and to achieve this meaning he sacrifices his entire life. But what really happens is that his desire and ambition for happiness travels from him to his son, then to his grandson and then transforms into this never ending journey. On the other hand, for a saint who finds solace in trying to unveil the mysteries of life, this world, knowledge and illusion, micro and macro, visible and invisible, saguna and nirguna also first of all, analyse these two words.
Here exists a path for you, on traversing on which you can attain those meanings of happiness and sadness, success and failure, which instead of increasing your interests in life can rather catapult you into hopelessness and virag. Only practice and continuous practice is all that is needed. Practise to rest yourself in the moments in between happiness and sadness, with continuous effort. Some are such subtle stages, such pointers where sadness culminates and happiness originates or such centers where the limits of sadness end and that of happiness begins and on concentrating and analysis, it becomes vivid that these are such centers where neither do happiness and failure exist nor do sadness and hopelessness. Being there you can witness both these states. It’s that centre which has both pulled and let gone the reigns of wisdom and success and failure. And that centre itself is free from both of these. If you reach this centre, then in the period of this body itself, in these breaths and by this knowledge and wisdom you can be free.
The happiness that you think about, wish for and desire of, all the time is just one side of the coin. And while struggling for this happiness, fighting the world and yourself, you do not get reminded of the other side of this coin, maybe never. That’s why, when you achieve success sometime after a struggle; you assume it to be a result of your hard work. This you think is a fruit of your hard work. But maybe it is not so. If it was so, then whenever or wherever someone struggles, makes an effort and works hard, that person for sure should be rewarded and he must be successful in all endeavours. But in reality, success is only for a small proportion, such that it doesn’t even seem to exist. The paradox with it is that when hopelessness and failure comes your way, you act very strange, as if this loss and failure was destined for you, your fate was such. This all has been caused by the ‘I’ foe. Only some work was left undone, otherwise ‘I’ for sure had achieved, ‘I’ had for sure happened.
But how could it happen that your hard work is not rewarded whereas someone puts in no effort but achieves a lot. No effort put in but great rewards are reaped. Because there exists fewer proofs to establish failure after hard work but there exist numerous examples of those who have achieved a lot by way of working in a much simplified manner. The world is full of people and the especially the ones who are successful. I am talking about the same thing that you address as happiness. The child born with a silver spoon, with no struggle of his and then the son accumulating more wealth, the inheritors as the owner of the mill, owner of the chair, owner of land, the lords of the ships and ports. There are those too on whom lies the onus of the financial stability of the society to some extent. They have no idea how much wealth, luxuries, comforts and what all they possess.
When you or the 3rd person is living in his world of success, the fear of failure always dreads him. A happy person is more worried as he fears to fall in pangs of sadness; the much dreaded other side of the coin.
In Happiness, the shadow of sadness looms large. And in sadness exists the desire of happiness. This is a swing in which everyone swings. But this entire swing and the period of swinging are nothing but to be busy wandering in world of thought and imaginations. Because the accumulation of wealth, land, materials etc is not synonymous with being happy. Its excessive accumulation is the causal agent of inequality, worry, ego and other vices. And a large population suffers because of being devoid of the basic necessities. But an even larger population suffers on being devoid of happiness.
Success and Failure are mere worldly words, which are fed into you every moment from all directions. These don’t sprout from within you. Sadness and happiness are mere words fixed and organised and echoed and projected by the society itself, to experience, realise, and to float in the society’s flow downstream, whose meanings cannot be comprehended while desiring them. You must have heard people shouting out happiness happiness and sadness sadness but at least ask the thousands and millions the meaning of the word, then you would realise that people use the words merely for their selfish meanings and probably kill their meaning, their real actual meanings.
What could be the meanings in pregnancy of sadness and happiness, success and failure and if the core or pregnancy meanings of such words are developed, then to an ordinary human and to saint, then meanings of these words would be quite contrary. The meaning of happiness is quite huge for a person flowing in the society’s flow and for the one who is in deep slumber and to achieve this meaning he sacrifices his entire life. But what really happens is that his desire and ambition for happiness travels from him to his son, then to his grandson and then transforms into this never ending journey. On the other hand, for a saint who finds solace in trying to unveil the mysteries of life, this world, knowledge and illusion, micro and macro, visible and invisible, saguna and nirguna also first of all, analyse these two words.
Here exists a path for you, on traversing on which you can attain those meanings of happiness and sadness, success and failure, which instead of increasing your interests in life can rather catapult you into hopelessness and virag. Only practice and continuous practice is all that is needed. Practise to rest yourself in the moments in between happiness and sadness, with continuous effort. Some are such subtle stages, such pointers where sadness culminates and happiness originates or such centers where the limits of sadness end and that of happiness begins and on concentrating and analysis, it becomes vivid that these are such centers where neither do happiness and failure exist nor do sadness and hopelessness. Being there you can witness both these states. It’s that centre which has both pulled and let gone the reigns of wisdom and success and failure. And that centre itself is free from both of these. If you reach this centre, then in the period of this body itself, in these breaths and by this knowledge and wisdom you can be free.
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