What gives real happiness? The question has bothered the best and brightest since times
immemorial. It is money? Is it power? Fame? Friends? Family?
While all these are must-haves in society, they do not give true joy, says Sunandaji, 53, daughter-disciple of Swami Parthasarathy, founder of the Vedanta Academy.
Real happiness is hardest to find, she says. The more we chase it, the more elusive it gets. And if one does not get it, one feels trapped.
“The more freedom you have, the less happy you are, and you wonder why,” she explains in her plush Malabar Hill apartment. “The agitated mind always craves something more. This is the paradox of life, as the human alone is intelligent and the human alone suffers.”
According to Sunandaji, the source of well-being lies within ourselves. The scriptures say our original self is to be blissful, just as the body’s original state is to be healthy. “But due to the state of mental agitation acquired when we relate to the world, there is always a procession of joys and sorrows,” she says. “This happens because we look for happiness in the wrong place — the world. It gives temporary joy, like smoking.”
The answer, she says, is to bring our thoughts to a single-pointed focus. “That’s the seat of meditation. Use the knowledge of the Gita to take you beyond self. The mind stops wavering and instead of pursuing the world you seek the knowledge of self. This gives a state of being and happiness that remains unaltered.”
Sunandaji’s discourse on Chapter X of the Gita will be conducted at the Ravindra Natya Mandir today and tomorrow at 6:30pm.
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