Inner Fulfillment

· Part 3: Happiness in Higher Thought ·

Why is happiness eluding us? No matter how much we get, we always hanker for more. Such is the nature of every one of us in all fields and walks of life. How then can finite material objects and flickering bodily or intellectual pleasures satiate our infinite hankerings? For as long as we go on searching for happiness within the material plane, our efforts and endeavors are destined to be irrevocably frustrated. Due to their natural limitations, material objects and goals simply cannot satisfy our limitless hankerings. Only by seeking out the beauty and love of the unlimited spiritual realm can we hope to be successful in our common quest for lasting happiness.

The Lord is always there, even in the worst period of our lives. He is waiting, waiting to help us—we must only look up for His grace, with all sincerity. He is everywhere, waiting, “My boy, look at Me. Do not make much of the external environment. I am here, very near to you. You have cast your focus aside, you have cast your consciousness outside—make it internal and you will find Me here. You are looking down to secure servants and comforts, but if you look up, for existence higher than you, you will find Me in that plane. Look up! Do not look down, searching for servants.” You want to become a master and are thus searching for servants, hunting after things for your service. Take the opposite course, become a servant and search for your master, your Lord, then you will be uplifted, taken up to a higher domain. If you want to live in a higher domain, you will have to serve. If you want to be a master, then you will have to come down in the lower zone, where you can be a master.

This is neither exaggeration nor imagination; it is something scientific. You can enjoy only those that are of a lower position. So, by attempting to enjoy, mean association becomes inevitable. Only by preparing yourself for higher service will you be able to come in contact with your soul’s higher position. Sacrifice. By sacrifice you go up; by the enjoying spirit you will have to go down. We have to understand what is exploitation and enjoyment, and what is higher service. Divine service is pure, and in that service there is also a pure type of joy and ecstasy. By giving we become gainers, and by extorting we become losers. This scientific truth should be understood. By robbing things from others, someone can find superficial satisfaction, but underneath there is some suspicion that the result will not be very good, “Some reaction will come to attack me.” To exploit by stealing provides some sort of enjoyment, but happiness is also enjoyed by big donors through their giving in charity. There is a difference in quality between these two sorts of happiness, and we are to distinguish between them. There are different conceptions of happiness in different planes, and a comparison is to be drawn between the qualitative differences in the pleasure derived. We are to conceive of different planes of life. The life of higher service is divine life. The Absolute God is there. Everything is for Him. Everything here is for His pleasure. But how can we attain this divine life? What is mundane and what is divine? We are to differentiate it, we are to examine it in order to accept divine life.

What is God? God is not an order supplier. If I am sick, I am not to just ask, “O God, cure my sickness!” And if I am poor, I should not only pray, “O God, give me money!” Such a mercenary connection is not very happy, but still it has some meaning because at least there is a thought that there is some supernatural power and that He can do wonders. However, it is better to want God without expecting anything mundane from Him. We should want God, who is the source of all this opulence, and we should not want anything else which we consider valuable. We are to depend on Him, “O Lord, give me what is good. I am an imperfect being, so I do not know what is good and what is bad. Please provide whatever You consider to be good for me.” This is an improvement over praying to Him for mundane benefits. But best is to accept the creed of unalloyed service to the Highest, “I want You, my Lord, nothing else.” And what will be our connection with Him? Service. “I want only Your service.”

In the beginning, we might think that we are losers, but ultimately we will gain. Apparently, we are giving ourselves, we are sacrificing our selfish interests, but, in a subtle sense, we gain thereby. This ontological truth should be appreciated. It is neither a dogma nor blind faith; it is based on higher, unprejudiced reasons.

Our life is unfulfilled and we want fulfillment, there is no doubt, but what type of fulfillment should we hanker for and search after? We know we are in want, and, at the same time, we yearn to remove our want and obtain satisfaction. No doubt, this is so for everyone. But how to make progress from an unfulfilled life towards fulfillment? To do that, we are to search for God. We must search for Him.

☜ Back to the library
☜ Back to the home page

CONTENTS

Preface

(1) Searching for the Solution

(2) The Vision of Goodness

(3) Happiness in Higher Thought

(4) The Happiest Form of Life

(5) A Labour of Love

(6) Homeward Bound

(7) The Land of Beauty

Epilogue: The Key to it All

Download (epub)
Download (pdf)