Happily Ever After

The famous Sphinx in Egypt has a human head and a lion’s body. It is said that many come from all over the world to pray to it, as it is believed that the Sphinx can grant wishes. The interesting thing about the Sphinx is that it has a half-smile carved on its face as if mocking those who come begging for happiness at its feet. But many do not notice it as they are so blinded by their desires.

One man comes to the Sphinx and prays to marry a beautiful woman. His prayer is granted and he marries an attractive woman who turns out to be vain and self-centered. She is fair of face, but her mind is stubborn and her heart is not generous. Slowly, the light of love goes out of him. He then realizes that the look on the Sphinx was telling him that a beautiful body does not bestow happiness.

Yet another one comes to the Sphinx asking for wealth, and the Sphinx grants his desire. The man becomes rich, but his heart slowly turns hard as stone. What he gains in gold and diamonds, he loses in compassion and true friendship. His heart is buried beneath a burden of worries and the constant fear that his wealth will be stolen or lost. He too then realizes why the Sphinx gave him that ‘think again what you are asking for’ look when he prayed for wealth.

A third man goes to the Sphinx to pray that he might become someone great and important. He also somehow notices the sarcastic expression of the Sphinx, but he dismisses it from his mind. As fate would have it, he does become a distinguished man. But in his fame, he has little time for his family. He neglects his wife and children, and eventually they leave him. In his loneliness, he realizes that fame does not bring happiness.

Happiness is within. It is not in sensual pleasures or anywhere outside. You will never be able to achieve happiness outside at all. No matter how much job satisfaction you may get, how much social work you may do, whatever professional work you may do, you will never get happiness in these things because the soul has a yearning for its own source. Unless you let the soul go to its own source, it will never be happy.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I}

We often confuse pleasure, comfort, and a life free of worry with true happiness. Realistically, no one lives happily ever after here in this world of maya, except heroes and heroines in fairy tales. Some realize it earlier, some later. The definition of maya is illusion – anything that comes and goes.

My definition of real is that it never changes. That which is true, only that is real. All else is illusion. Only the Lord is real. The soul is real. All other things change.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I}

A time comes when we start questioning the happiness the world offers. It gives with one hand and snatches away with the other. Sooner or later we realize that the satisfaction of one’s desire becomes burdensome. Hazur Maharaj Ji used to say in his satsangs that we pray for five years for something and then for another 10 years to remove it from our life.

A very painful question arises, to which we all know the answer, but hope against hope that it’s not true. What really belongs to us that is here to stay with us?

Absolutely nothing of this world!

Hazur Maharaj Ji gave the perfect example of the boy with his father by his side who is captivated by the glamour of the fair – the carousels, the colourful blinking lights, the exciting rides and attractive stalls selling all kinds of sweets and toys. But when he gets lost and is no longer holding his father’s hand, he starts to cry. He cannot bear to see the fascinating things of the fair any longer and only wants his father. He then realizes the happiness from the fair was only possible as long as he was holding his father’s hand.

This is the breaking point of illusion where the moment of truth awakens us to reality.

When we hold the Lord’s hand, when our attention is towards him, we can go through this life without losing much of our balance. If we have absolutely forgotten him, then we live miserably in this creation.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I}

Have we ever wondered about our soul’s desire? It wants its nourishment. When the mind quiets down, that is when the soul can experience the bliss of Shabd, that celestial power within.

This is what we are all actually searching for unconsciously, but instead we chase earthly satisfaction that is impermanent.

Endless quotes of the saints tell us that happiness lies within, and that this is not our true home. This is the home of temporary pleasures. After all, how can a place where big animals eat small animals to survive, where disasters like typhoons and earthquakes wipe out homes and families in a second, a place filled with sickness and death, be a place of joy?

That is why saints say that this world is not worth living in for you; this place has not much worth for you at all. Leave this creation. We should go back to the Father.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I}

As disciples on the spiritual path, we forget that our soul is more powerful than our tormented mind. The Master, with his gift of Nam, has given us the way to empower ourselves daily with our meditation.

For the sake of our soul, it behooves us to do those actions which take us towards the Lord. We have to care for the body as well, but in such a way that care for it translates into service to our soul. Only then can we strive to live happily ever after.

We can be happy only when the purpose of our coming into this body has been achieved. And the purpose of our coming into this body can be achieved only when we invert our attention within this body and try to search for him there. Unless we meet him, we can never be happy and we can never be saved from birth and death.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I}