Video Information: Vishranti Shivir, 03.11.2019, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Context:
~ What is the consumption of happiness?
~ How is it different from cultivating happiness?
~ How to cultivate happiness?
~ What does it mean to enjoy happiness in full freedom?
~ Happiness is a Glimpse of what?
"You have never enjoyed happiness in full freedom, little man. That's why you consume it,
why you take no responsibility for the preservation of your happiness. You haven't learned (you never had a chance) to cultivate your happiness with loving care, as a gardener cultivates his flowers and a farmer his wheat. You consume your happiness"
Excerpt from the book: Listen, Little Man!
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Context:
~ What is the consumption of happiness?
~ How is it different from cultivating happiness?
~ How to cultivate happiness?
~ What does it mean to enjoy happiness in full freedom?
~ Happiness is a Glimpse of what?
"You have never enjoyed happiness in full freedom, little man. That's why you consume it,
why you take no responsibility for the preservation of your happiness. You haven't learned (you never had a chance) to cultivate your happiness with loving care, as a gardener cultivates his flowers and a farmer his wheat. You consume your happiness"
Excerpt from the book: Listen, Little Man!
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00You have never enjoyed happiness in full freedom, little man.
00:13That's why you consume it.
00:23You take no responsibility for the preservation of your happiness.
00:30You haven't learned.
00:31You never had a chance to cultivate your happiness with loving care as a gardener cultivates
00:38his flowers and a farmer his wheat.
00:42You consume your happiness.
00:50So Abhilash is asking, Acharyaji, can you please clarify what does it mean to enjoy
00:59happiness in full freedom?
01:02Is it the conditioned mind of the little man that stops him from cultivating and preserving
01:08happiness?
01:09The author also indicates that in the company of little man, cultivating happiness is hard.
01:20Please help me understand how the little man could grow from being a consumer of happiness
01:24to a cultivator.
01:35Happiness is a glimpse.
01:43Glimpse of what?
01:47Glimpse of absence of suffering.
01:55That's why we like happiness.
02:00That's why everybody says I want to be happy.
02:04Why do we say we want to be happy?
02:08Because our default state is of suffering.
02:20And man suffers much more than any other being in the world.
02:32No being is capable of suffering as much as man is.
02:43Man is a suffering animal.
02:50Other creatures have pain but not so much suffering.
02:54To suffer, you require a consciousness with depth.
03:03Man has that.
03:05Other beings have that only in a limited way.
03:12You could say man is born suffering and man is born to suffer.
03:18That is the arrangement his physical apparatus has ensured for him.
03:30Suffer.
03:37Trapped in this body, you want great things to happen to you.
03:43Suffer.
03:46Confined to a little stretch of time, a little expanse of space, you want everything to be
03:59limitless.
04:00Now suffer.
04:01That which your consciousness wants, meditates against everything that your body has arranged
04:15for you.
04:18It's a very, very peculiar situation.
04:20You could call it tragic.
04:26That which your consciousness wants is not at all what your body is configured to give
04:35you.
04:36So the body gives you one thing and what consciousness wants is not merely different but dimensionally
04:45different.
04:49So man suffers.
04:55Because we suffer, therefore we are always hungry for happiness.
05:04That's why in the world of Homo sapiens, happiness is such a precious commodity.
05:14Everybody wants it without exception.
05:16What do you want?
05:17Happy, happy.
05:18I want to be happy.
05:22Happiness sells.
05:23It doesn't matter what is being sold and where.
05:28If you just probe a little, you will find that happiness is being sold.
05:32Happiness is valuable for the human being because he is suffering.
05:39So far so good.
05:42Now there is a glitch.
05:45What is the glitch?
05:51The normal common happiness as we get it is just a by-product of suffering.
06:03Those who have known that have said that our so-called happiness is just another name for
06:11sadness or suffering.
06:15It cannot come without sadness.
06:17It comes along with sadness or it comes as a product of sadness and it is not merely
06:26preceded by sadness.
06:30It is also succeeded by sadness.
06:34So sadness and when sadness reaches some kind of a crest, then the curve takes an inflection
06:48and there is a little happiness and just as you are consuming your happiness, what is
06:56being cooked for you?
07:00Sadness again.
07:07So the happiness that we get is just a glimpse.
07:12It is just a glimpse.
07:14It is a valuable glimpse.
07:18Even if for a limited time, it still tells us that freedom from suffering is possible.
07:28It is a trailer, a 30-second trailer to a 3-hour movie.
07:37The thing is that trailers don't last long and trailers are free for the movie.
07:47You have to pay your way in, no?
07:55So happiness comes to you so that you become interested, you become inquisitive, your longing
08:08gains depth and you ask for permanent happiness.
08:16You say, oh this that was given to me was so ephemeral, 30 seconds, that's all.
08:20No, no, no.
08:21It was good but I want the real thing.
08:26I want that which will last and thank you for giving this little happiness to me.
08:34It whetted my appetite.
08:36Now I want deeper happiness and that is called cultivation of happiness.
08:43What is consumption of happiness?
08:4530 seconds were given to you.
08:48You ate them up and you said fine.
08:53The seeds were given to me, what did I do with the seeds?
08:59This is consumption of happiness, that's what most people do.
09:02Seeds were given to you, there was a potentiality but you consumed the seeds.
09:12And then there is another one who starts loving the taste.
09:16He says, I just had a few seeds and if these seeds are so delicious, I would want them
09:24to become my life.
09:26I don't just want to gobble them down my throat.
09:34I'll sow them, I'll let them strike roots deep into the earth, my earth, my inner earth.
09:46I'll let them become full-fledged trees for me.
09:56This cultivation of happiness is called in classic parlance as the pursuit of Anand.
10:06This consumption of happiness is called Bhog.
10:13Consumption of Sukha.
10:22Sukha and Bhog go together.
10:26Happiness is consumed, Anand is cultivated.
10:31This cultivation you could call as Sadhana.
10:34With Sukha, no Sadhana is needed.
10:40For Anand, Sadhana is definitely needed.
10:49To make things clearer, you could say that our normal happiness is ephemeral and dualistic.
10:58Dualistic because it is preceded and succeeded by, so it is dualistic.
11:06And great happiness is permanent and non-dual.
11:12Non-dual because it is freedom and total freedom from suffering.
11:18It is freedom not merely from sadness but also from superficial happiness.
11:26Real happiness which is joy or Anand is freedom not merely from sadness but also from superficial happiness.
11:36Anand means that you are now free from both Sukha and Dukha.
11:44And that is called cultivation of happiness.
11:47You get the difference between cultivation and consumption?
11:51If you are a little man, what will you do with the seeds that are given to you?
11:56For instant gratification.
12:00But if you have something large, a bit expansive within you, then you will be patient.
12:10Then you will say, I am prepared to work my way through to deeper happiness.
12:18And you will use the seeds, you will use the trailer to reach a place far deeper.
12:32Is that clear?
12:36So there is this three-day camp.
12:41What is this?
12:44What is this?
12:46These are just seeds.
12:51You may, as most people do, just consume these seeds.
13:03Get out, a loud burp and go home.
13:16Acharyaji came and he served us some delicious seeds.
13:28We put some sauce on them, some pepper, some seasoning.
13:41Acharyaji is so wonderful.
13:44Every six months, he comes with his bag full of seeds.
13:48And what do we do?
13:52Seeds are delectable.
13:54Who can refuse that?
14:01And there would be the one odd person who would say, if the seeds are great, I don't
14:09want the matter to end here.
14:15I will show some responsibility.
14:18Now I will raise an entire crop.
14:25All thanks to the visitor that he introduced me to the taste, that he showed to me the
14:32possibility.
14:36But now the onus is on me.
14:40I will take things ahead from here.
14:57All good things can be utilized by you in these two ways.
15:04Because they are good, they can be instantly consumed or because they are good, they can
15:10be further cultivated.
15:13Depends on how much you love yourself.
15:35Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
15:36No part of this recording may be reproduced without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.