There are many ways for us to achieve happiness in life. We can acquire happiness by seeing, by feeling, by acting and by becoming. When we see truth within and without us, we can be happy. When we feel love within us, we can become happy. When we act devotedly and soulfully, we can become happy. And when we become perfect instruments of our Inner Pilot, we can become happy.
What is truth? Truth is something that holds us to the real in ourselves. There is something eternally real in us, and truth holds us to that eternal Reality within.
What is love? Love is something that expands and at the same time transcends. It expands our aspiration, and it transcends our realisation. Our aspiration expands and expands. It wants to become one with the universal Reality. And our realisation transcends and transcends. It goes far beyond the Goal that we have already achieved.
When do we act devotedly and soulfully? When our action is service to mankind or to the Inner Pilot in each human being. This service brings us the message of perfection. Perfection is not a vague term; it is a reality. And this reality we can see face to face when we serve the divinity in each human being.
When do we become perfect instruments of God? We become God’s perfect instruments when we become conscious representatives of God, conscious limbs of God, when He can perform His cosmic Task in and through us gloriously, triumphantly and proudly.
In the world of desire we try to possess material wealth, mundane things. Again, if we enter into the world of aspiration out of curiosity, then we try to possess and grab peace, power, light, bliss and so forth. When we try to possess, we may be able to possess an iota of peace, an iota of light, an iota of power or some other divine qualities. But if possession always looms large in our mind, then no matter what we get, we shall misuse it. We shall exploit the compassion of the divinity within us. When we possess material wealth, we quite often misuse it. We do not have the inner light to regulate our life, to moderate every second of our existence; therefore, we squander and misuse our material wealth. What we want to possess and get happiness from becomes a veritable curse to us.
Similarly, when we try to possess spiritual wealth, power, peace, light and bliss to use for our own purpose or to gain world acclaim, then real happiness remains a far cry. Peace, light, bliss and power are divine qualities, divine capacities. These capacities enter into us for the fulfilment of the divine within us, not so that we can use them according to our own sweet will.
Many of the people here, by virtue of their aspiration, have received something in the course of time. Let us say it is power, since peace is power, light is power, delight is power, creation itself is power. But they are apt to misuse it. How do they misuse it? They misuse it when they use it to glorify themselves. But if they allow these qualities to utilise them, then they glorify not only themselves but also the Absolute Supreme, who is the only Owner of these qualities and capacities.
Happiness can never be found in possession, either of earthly qualities and capacities or of heavenly qualities and capacities. Not in possession, not in dominion, but in cheerful union with the higher realities can we have happiness. Earthly qualities are all negative and destructive. Fear, doubt, anxiety, jealousy, insecurity — these are earthly qualities. But heavenly qualities are all positive and constructive. Peace, light, bliss, love of God, love of truth, self-giving, sacrifice, the feeling of constant oneness with the rest of the world — these are heavenly qualities. If we can identify ourselves with these heavenly qualities, then only will happiness be ours. Happiness will claim us as its very own then, and only then. There is no other way.
13 July 1976
United NationsFrom:Sri Chinmoy,AUM — Vol.II-3, No. 7, 27 July 1976, Vishma Press, 1976
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