00:00You have never enjoyed happiness in full freedom, little man.
00:13That's why you consume it.
00:23You take no responsibility for the preservation of your happiness.
00:30You haven't learned.
00:31You never had a chance to cultivate your happiness with loving care as a gardener cultivates
00:38his flowers and a farmer his wheat.
00:42You consume your happiness.
00:50So Abhilash is asking, Acharyaji, can you please clarify what does it mean to enjoy
00:59happiness in full freedom?
01:02Is it the conditioned mind of the little man that stops him from cultivating and preserving
01:08happiness?
01:09The author also indicates that in the company of little man, cultivating happiness is hard.
01:20Please help me understand how the little man could grow from being a consumer of happiness
01:24to a cultivator.
01:35Happiness is a glimpse.
01:43Glimpse of what?
01:47Glimpse of absence of suffering.
01:55That's why we like happiness.
02:00That's why everybody says I want to be happy.
02:04Why do we say we want to be happy?
02:08Because our default state is of suffering.
02:20And man suffers much more than any other being in the world.
02:32No being is capable of suffering as much as man is.
02:43Man is a suffering animal.
02:50Other creatures have pain but not so much suffering.
02:54To suffer, you require a consciousness with depth.
03:03Man has that.
03:05Other beings have that only in a limited way.
03:12You could say man is born suffering and man is born to suffer.
03:18That is the arrangement his physical apparatus has ensured for him.
03:30Suffer.
03:37Trapped in this body, you want great things to happen to you.
03:43Suffer.
03:46Confined to a little stretch of time, a little expanse of space, you want everything to be
03:59limitless.
04:00Now suffer.
04:01That which your consciousness wants, meditates against everything that your body has arranged
04:15for you.
04:18It's a very, very peculiar situation.
04:20You could call it tragic.
04:26That which your consciousness wants is not at all what your body is configured to give
04:35you.
04:36So the body gives you one thing and what consciousness wants is not merely different but dimensionally
04:45different.
04:49So man suffers.
04:55Because we suffer, therefore we are always hungry for happiness.
05:04That's why in the world of Homo sapiens, happiness is such a precious commodity.
05:14Everybody wants it without exception.
05:16What do you want?
05:17Happy, happy.
05:18I want to be happy.
05:22Happiness sells.
05:23It doesn't matter what is being sold and where.
05:28If you just probe a little, you will find that happiness is being sold.
05:32Happiness is valuable for the human being because he is suffering.
05:39So far so good.
05:42Now there is a glitch.
05:45What is the glitch?
05:51The normal common happiness as we get it is just a by-product of suffering.
06:03Those who have known that have said that our so-called happiness is just another name for
06:11sadness or suffering.
06:15It cannot come without sadness.
06:17It comes along with sadness or it comes as a product of sadness and it is not merely
06:26preceded by sadness.
06:30It is also succeeded by sadness.
06:34So sadness and when sadness reaches some kind of a crest, then the curve takes an inflection
06:48and there is a little happiness and just as you are consuming your happiness, what is
06:56being cooked for you?
07:00Sadness again.
07:07So the happiness that we get is just a glimpse.
07:12It is just a glimpse.
07:14It is a valuable glimpse.
07:18Even if for a limited time, it still tells us that freedom from suffering is possible.
07:28It is a trailer, a 30-second trailer to a 3-hour movie.
07:37The thing is that trailers don't last long and trailers are free for the movie.
07:47You have to pay your way in, no?
07:55So happiness comes to you so that you become interested, you become inquisitive, your longing
08:08gains depth and you ask for permanent happiness.
08:16You say, oh this that was given to me was so ephemeral, 30 seconds, that's all.
08:20No, no, no.
08:21It was good but I want the real thing.
08:26I want that which will last and thank you for giving this little happiness to me.
08:34It whetted my appetite.
08:36Now I want deeper happiness and that is called cultivation of happiness.
08:43What is consumption of happiness?
08:4530 seconds were given to you.
08:48You ate them up and you said fine.
08:53The seeds were given to me, what did I do with the seeds?
08:59This is consumption of happiness, that's what most people do.
09:02Seeds were given to you, there was a potentiality but you consumed the seeds.
09:12And then there is another one who starts loving the taste.
09:16He says, I just had a few seeds and if these seeds are so delicious, I would want them
09:24to become my life.
09:26I don't just want to gobble them down my throat.
09:34I'll sow them, I'll let them strike roots deep into the earth, my earth, my inner earth.
09:46I'll let them become full-fledged trees for me.
09:56This cultivation of happiness is called in classic parlance as the pursuit of Anand.
10:06This consumption of happiness is called Bhog.
10:13Consumption of Sukha.
10:22Sukha and Bhog go together.
10:26Happiness is consumed, Anand is cultivated.
10:31This cultivation you could call as Sadhana.
10:34With Sukha, no Sadhana is needed.
10:40For Anand, Sadhana is definitely needed.
10:49To make things clearer, you could say that our normal happiness is ephemeral and dualistic.
10:58Dualistic because it is preceded and succeeded by, so it is dualistic.
11:06And great happiness is permanent and non-dual.
11:12Non-dual because it is freedom and total freedom from suffering.
11:18It is freedom not merely from sadness but also from superficial happiness.
11:26Real happiness which is joy or Anand is freedom not merely from sadness but also from superficial happiness.
11:36Anand means that you are now free from both Sukha and Dukha.
11:44And that is called cultivation of happiness.
11:47You get the difference between cultivation and consumption?
11:51If you are a little man, what will you do with the seeds that are given to you?
11:56For instant gratification.
12:00But if you have something large, a bit expansive within you, then you will be patient.
12:10Then you will say, I am prepared to work my way through to deeper happiness.
12:18And you will use the seeds, you will use the trailer to reach a place far deeper.
12:32Is that clear?
12:36So there is this three-day camp.
12:41What is this?
12:44What is this?
12:46These are just seeds.
12:51You may, as most people do, just consume these seeds.
13:03Get out, a loud burp and go home.
13:16Acharyaji came and he served us some delicious seeds.
13:28We put some sauce on them, some pepper, some seasoning.
13:41Acharyaji is so wonderful.
13:44Every six months, he comes with his bag full of seeds.
13:48And what do we do?
13:52Seeds are delectable.
13:54Who can refuse that?
14:01And there would be the one odd person who would say, if the seeds are great, I don't
14:09want the matter to end here.
14:15I will show some responsibility.
14:18Now I will raise an entire crop.
14:25All thanks to the visitor that he introduced me to the taste, that he showed to me the
14:32possibility.
14:36But now the onus is on me.
14:40I will take things ahead from here.
14:57All good things can be utilized by you in these two ways.
15:04Because they are good, they can be instantly consumed or because they are good, they can
15:10be further cultivated.
15:13Depends on how much you love yourself.
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