Science of Spirituality: Happiness

The German philosopher Schopenhauerasked the question, “How can we determine whether a man is happy or unhappy?” He defined true happiness as the complete satisfaction of all desires. You could say that the happiness of a person can be described mathematically as:

Happiness = Number of desires fulfilled

                         Total number of desires

So if you have ten desires and five are fulfilled, you have fifty percent happiness. If ten are fulfilled, you have one hundred percent happiness. The more desires you have, the harder it will be to fulfil them all, and so the less happy you will be. Happiness is inversely related to numbers of desires.

What happens when you have no desires at all? The denominator becomes zero. Anything you divide by zero is infinity. If you have zero desires, limitless will be your happiness.

In this desireless state, we don't expect anything. When we don't expect anything, we don't play games with ourselves and others. We don't manipulate others because we don't expect anything from anyone.

How do we destroy our inner condition and our humanness? It is mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita, in chapter two, that when desires are not fulfilled there is disappointment. Disappointment leads to anger, anger makes us lose our balance, and once we lose our balance, our mental equilibrium, we are destroyed and lose our humanness.

Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur spoke about, “More and more of less and less.” What is he talking about? He is talking of desires: more and more of less and less of desires. When you look at it in a mathematical way, you see so much wisdom in that simple statement.

If you want to have infinite happiness, infinite bliss, then minimanise your desires, from more and more to less and less and finally to zero! Make peace with yourself. “My Lord, whatever you have given me and you continue giving me in the future, I am happy.” Does that mean you should not have an iPhone? You think about it.

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