Jean-Paul Sartre, the nihilist-existentialist author wrote “In this world that bleeds, all joy is obscene.” That’s a grim condemnation of the quest for happiness which is all but universal in human consciousness. Sartre and others like him did, however, experience the absurd obscenity of the madness of two world wars in the first half of the twentieth century and it’s not difficult to understand a glimmer of their despondency.
This “sour grapes” view of life isn’t helped by the dualistic precept that all happiness must be balanced by suffering. Should we just throw in the towel and walk around “chopping wood and carrying water” like human buffaloes or long-suffering camels? If it all adds up to zero, why not be a zero?
So: what’s wrong with these conclusions?
The legendary reformer of Hinduism, the Adi (first) Shankacharya, quoted ancient revelation when he described God as “satchidanandam:” ever-existing (immortal), ever-conscious (omniscient and immanent), ever-new bliss. As the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament declares that we are made in the image of God, so it is our birthright and destiny to re-discover the unalloyed happiness of soul-bliss.
Our impulse to seek happiness is, itself, not misplaced but the means we seek to find it is all-too-often unsatisfactory. Duality is part of the necessary structure of consciousness as it differentiates itself in time, space and form but the non-dual nature of the soul is formless, timeless, eternal and ever-present.
Mahatma Gandhi pointed out that no matter how large the scale of destruction and violence, life persists; love emerges; hope springs eternal. While these may alternate unceasingly and unendingly, life continues nonetheless. This illustrates the positive principle that points to a truth that stands above the ceaseless flux of nature.
On the admittedly relative scale of human satisfaction, giving and sharing bring greater and more lasting happiness than taking and being selfish. Giving and sharing connect us with others and help us form a bond of mutual acceptance, goodwill, and respect.
If a person falls off a boat into the water and is thrashing about, it is more useful to throw him a line or lifebuoy than to jump in the water with him when you don’t know how to swim. Becoming sad or grief-stricken as a response to another person’s grief does not help that person. It is natural to feel sad for that person’s sadness but to refuse to express any happiness in your life because someone you know is sad helps neither you nor that person.
Happiness is innate to our calm, centered nature. As the survival instinct echoes our deeper-than-conscious knowledge that we are immortal, our happiness instinct echoes our soul’s state of bliss.
To avoid the seeming inappropriateness of contrasting our happiness with the sorrow of others, we should seek and experience our happiness in the contentment of the soul within ourselves. Otherwise, if our happiness is conditioned on outer, well, conditions, then the law of duality dictates that we must experience its opposite. But when our happiness runs like a river beneath the sands of outer experiences it runs true and finds appropriate expression in the wide variety of outer circumstances that we encounter.
Paramhansa Yogananda therefore suggested that we should view whatever happiness we find in things, people or circumstances as reflections of our inner, soul happiness. For we know that all things do balance out. Let the beauty of nature remind us of the supreme beauty of God’s consciousness; the kindness of others, of the love of God; the pleasing tastes upon the palate, the supremely relishable bliss of God; and so on.
By contrast, may the sorrows and torments of life remind us, too, that ultimate satisfaction and happiness cannot be found in this world of duality. Goodness reflects more purely god-ness than bad-ness. Virtue brings us closer to divine happiness than vice. Relative, yes; but relative to the absolute bliss of Spirit.
The “yoga of joy” is the happiness that wells up when we are integrated in body, mind and soul; when we feel the peace of the soul; when we feel our connection with all life, regardless of form, like or dislike. Daily meditation and entering the silence expands our hearts and minds to become One with all.