VivekaVani's video: How to Be Happy Without Money - Pravrajika Divyanandaprana

“Man always wants more, not less, happiness than he has already. He errs, however, when he thinks he can increase his happiness by adding to his possessions rather than expanding his awareness. Any effort to increase his happiness without at the same time expanding his sensitivity to the world around him, and his sense of identity with it, will be self-defeating. Whenever a person acts selfishly, he deadens the capacity to perceive his essential unity with all life. He becomes, as a result, petty and mean. The expansion of happiness necessarily entails the expansion of awareness, not the expansion of property. For happiness is not a thing, and cannot be found in mere things. It is a quality of consciousness: something that one is aware with, rather than of. Reason therefore suggests, and inner experience confirms that happiness is an intrinsic quality of human nature. We enjoy things only to the extent that we satisfy the thought in our own minds that things are enjoyable. In fact, it is never things themselves that we enjoy at all, but only a deeper reality within our own being.” “The desire to attain happiness is actually symptomatic of the desire for self-discovery, for self-fulfillment. By the same token, the desire to avoid suffering is essentially a desire to eschew ‘non-happiness’ as foreign to our nature. We suffer only when something withholds from us that degree of happiness which we feel rightfully ours.” “Every human being tirelessly seeks it in the world through action, emotion and knowledge. The search for bliss goes on. None has ever found it. Only the rare one who has directed his search inward has reached that State of supreme bliss. He finds it through realization of the Self. People believe that outer conquests can bring about inner peace and bliss. It is a false believe arising out of spiritual ignorance. India has passed that state of spiritual infancy long, long ago. The ancient Rishis (sages) understood the hollowness of such pursuits. They had discovered that happiness dwells not in the outward charms of materiality. Real happiness abides in the core of your personality… External pursuit of happiness is futile” “The Ultimate is experienced in the depth of the soul, in the substance, or Centre of its consciousness, as its own Ground or Source, as its very being or Self (Atman). This experience of God is summed up in the word saccidananda. God or Ultimate Reality is experienced as absolute being (sat), known in pure consciousness (cit), communicating absolute bliss (ananda). This was the experience of the seers of the Upanishads as it has been of innumerable India ever since. It is an experience of selftranscendence, which gives an intuitive insight in Reality” Conclusion: Advaita Vedanta suggests that Being (Brahman) is non-dual (Advaita). It is existential. It is experiential and non-relational. There is no difference between Self (Atman) and Being (Brahman). It is supreme knowledge (Sat), supreme consciousness (Chit) and supreme bliss (Ananda). Advaita Vedanta propounds that it is nescience (avidya) that enshrouds the individual self to assume that existence is dual, that is there is a creator and creation, that there is the experiencer and the experienced. It reinstates the Vedic theory that the substratum, Brahman, is not identifiable and that it is not located in space-time-causation continuum. The non-dual school of thought suggests that it is the delusive force or energy (Maya) that veils the non-dual nature of Brahman. Advaita Vedanta emphasizes that the actions or activities undertaken by the embodied self is nothing but an innate urge to express its expanse and freedom and unfold its nature as supreme knowledge, supreme consciousness and supreme bliss. It believes that bliss is not capable of being pursuit or sought, as man, as an embodied self, is by nature blissful. It conclusively asserts that Self (Atman) is enlightened and blissful by nature. It reiterates the concluding findings of the Indian revealed Vedas (scriptures) highlighting the non-dual nature of Brahman or Atman. Advaita Vedanta suggests that creation is the ultimate expression of Brahman which is inherently blissful, endowed with supreme knowledge and consciousness. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad affirms in its sutra or aphorism, “Poornamadam Poornamidam, Poornaat Poorna Mudacyathe, Poornasya Poornamaadaaya Poornameva vasishyathe” which means “from fullness (brahman), fullness (creation) came and despite its expression, fullness (brahman) still remains full. Thus, creation is taken as a sportive expression of supreme knowledge, supreme consciousness and supreme bliss.