My Choice – In Gita Verse 18.38 That happiness which is derived from contact of the senses with their objects and which appears like nectar at first but poison at the end is said to be of the nature of passion.
According to Krishna, what is the nature of passion – when you are happy because of something, others and not just because you choose to be happy.
Joy is spiritual. It is different, totally different from pleasure or happiness. It has nothing to do with the outside, with the other, it is an inner phenomenon.
That is the simple secret of happiness. Whatever you are doing, don’t let the past move your mind; don’t let the future disturb you. Because the past is no more, and the future is not yet. To live in the memories, to live in the imagination, is to live in the non-existential. And when you are living in the non-existential, you are missing that which is existential. Naturally you will be miserable, because you will miss your whole life.
How to drop the nature of passion, which is derived from the senses with their objects.
Try it. This is a magic formula. In each situation, look before you become unhappy or happy – look. Is there a possibility of being happy? And you will always find that the possibility is there. There is always something to be happy about. If you want to be unhappy then there is always something to be unhappy about.
The world is full of thorns and full of flowers. It is neither a rose-bed nor a thorn-bed – it is full of both. It depends on you. You can choose flowers and you can make a bed of flowers and sleep on the bed of roses. Or you can choose thorns and suffer. Hell is your creation, so is heaven.
Immediately a question will arise – Can I really be the cause of my own happiness?
Meditation is enjoying oneself, just sitting silently doing nothing: happy, joyous without any reason, because all reasons come from outside. You meet a beautiful woman and you are happy, or you meet a beautiful man and you are happy – but the meditator is simply happy. His happiness has no reason from the outside world; his happiness wells up within himself.
Relationship is happiness coming from the other, but have you watched, when happiness is coming from the other it must be welling up in the other, otherwise how will it reach you? And your happiness is reaching the other, you are both enjoying each other’s happiness; you are drinking out of each other’s well. And the well is there, otherwise how can you drink? But the woman that you love thinks she is enjoying your happiness – you are making her happy, you are the cause of her happiness. And you are thinking she is the cause of your happiness. But if you can both be causes to each other’s happiness, can’t you be a cause to your own happiness?
This is what meditation is: be here, don’t move into the future. Be non-ambitious, kill all desire for life, don’t desire happiness. And then you will be happy, and no one can destroy your happiness. Then it becomes impossible for you to be unhappy. Then you will be deathless and eternal life will have happened to you. It has already happened but you are not aware of it. Then you will be fulfilled. Non-ambitious, you will be fulfilled.
A seeker takes responsibility upon himself. In fact, to be a seeker means to hold no one but oneself responsible for everything. If there is sorrow in my life I am responsible, and if there is happiness in my life I am responsible. If I am tranquil it is I who am responsible; if I am restless it is my own making. There is no one but myself who is responsible for whatsoever state I am in. If I fall and break my leg it is my own fault and I cannot blame gravity. If this is the attitude of the mind, then you will have understood rightly. Then the meaning of a mishap will be different.
The essential religion is taking the whole responsibility for whatsoever you are. And immediately an insight arises: ‘If I am responsible for my suffering, then it is simple, I can drop it. It is my choice. I will not choose it anymore.’
A Sufi mystic who had always remained happy was asked…. For seventy years people had watched him, he had never been found sad. One day they asked him, ‘What is the secret of your happiness?’ He said, ‘There is no secret. Every morning when I wake up, I meditate for five minutes and I say to myself, ‘Listen, now there are two possibilities: you can be miserable, or you can be blissful. Choose.’ And I always choose to be blissful.’
All alternatives are open. Choose to be blissful. And then there are people who can be blissful even when they are imprisoned, and there are people who remain miserable even when they are living in marble palaces. It all depends on you.
Krishna says you choose to be blissful means – your happiness does not come from your past or future – which is not derived from contact of the senses with their objects.
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