The Search for Happiness

When a bow is bent and a string is tied, the tension of the string will depend upon the curvature of the bow. But the bow always tries to return to its straight shape, trying to go back to its original nature. In the same way, all living beings—plant, animal, and human—are searching for greater happiness, a larger sense of fulfillment, because that is their true nature.

We are essentially divine, infinitely blissful, extremely content. But by shifting our attention away from the divine in us, we act as limited egos, trying to discover a little happiness by possessing the objects of the world. We all think that our happiness depends upon external objects. Thus, we have become willful and voluntary slaves to the world around us.

Every one of us, rich or poor, is begging for a little more happiness and satisfaction from the world outside. The more intelligent and technologically developed we become the more elaborate the arrangements to reach such happiness.

Every action from birth to death is a silent search for happiness. This is the urge behind the entire evolutionary process, from unicellular organisms to human beings. This seems to be the pattern that Darwin’s evolutionary theory points out.

We marry, divorce, and remarry—all for happiness. We will even sacrifice parts of our bodies, a kidney for example, to share it with a friend—for happiness. We are not looking for sorrow. We all search for happiness.

Presently we assume that happiness is something to be reached, acquired, or manipulated by changing the circumstances of the world outside. This assumption is not just held by individuals. Communal and national activities everywhere are seeking happiness by trying to rearrange the world of things and beings. Some of us think that we will be happy when we own a Cadillac. Others feel that their office is too small and that a larger office will provide happiness. We are never satisfied with what we have. We want to get something more. This is mathematically feasible because the process of addition is always possible. When we get a million, we want another. One car is not enough so we get two or three.

And so it goes, on and on, more of everything. Our entire life is spent searching for happiness but never finding it. Once we get the desired object we struggled so hard for, there is a flash of joy, but the next moment we are again unhappy.

By searching for happiness in the world outside and depending on the objects to provide us with that happiness, we become slaves to the world. Learn to discover happiness inside yourself, by yourself. If we analyze the psychological nature of human beings, we will see that when the mind is agitated, there is unhappiness. The lesser the agitation the greater the happiness.

Mananam Publication Series
Living in Simplicity
The Search for Happiness – By Swami Chinmayananda
Chapter: The Spiritual Quest