Seeker: I have everything I need, still, I find it difficult to be happy.
Guruji Sri Vast:
How to define what I need? I have a car, I have a house, I have a partner, I have a job, I have money in the bank, I have a dog, I have a cat, I have a dining room with a table and 6 chairs, I have a living room with one 3-seater couch and two single seats – I have everything that I need. With this definition of what I need to complete my life, the problem starts.
Also, we come to a conclusion: at this age I go to school, this age I go to university, by this age I marry, by this age I have kids, at this age I divorce, at this age I retire. Defined: these are the components I need to have a complete picture of me. We don’t question whether our son is happy, lives in peace, lives in freedom, living in love, living in beauty. We don’t question that. We question whether according to the social norms, he is complete. And if he is not complete, we insist for him to complete.
What do I need, as a human species, to live on this planet? In this ‘what I need’, is it possible to include peace in the world, clean air, equality for every human being, dignity of life for everyone? I may believe that what I need is a house, a partner, a job – my comfort zone – and I disconnect. I create a clear barrier between ‘what I am’ and ‘this is me; this is what I need’. I fulfill my norms. I am successful.
Someone says a person is very successful because he has a big company, becomes a billionaire, owns a lot of properties – many cars, many houses – has a lot of money. He is very popular, very powerful – he is successful. We don’t question whether he is happy. We don’t count happiness as a symptom of success. We don’t say, “How he is in peace! He is in love. He is in freedom. He is so happy. He is successful.” We don’t count that. What is success? One person is a billionaire, taking sleeping pills to sleep. He needs to have some medicine to calm him down. Another person is peacefully snoring like anything. Who is successful? We have to get to know what is most important in life.
It is very important to recognize how we are domesticated. How far we alienated ourselves from life itself. There is a thirst to come back to the true me, the life of you in this human body, on this planet. Our human body wants to experience this life and because of how we have developed this mind and how this mind is treating this human body, a conflict comes.
This so-called completeness – when we believe that now I am successful, now I have what I need – does it fulfil my religious belief or my cultural belief or the life of the human species? Do I have everything that I need to experience cosmic life on this planet? Do I have all that I need to experience myself truly, beyond all conditions, to feel the life of this human species on this planet? Do I have freedom? Do I have peace? Do I have the right to walk freely? Am I accepted as equal with dignity, without any classifications, without any discriminations? Do I have a sense of connection between this body and this planet? Can I say I have all what I need to be a human? Maybe not.
Get to know what you are missing. Because most of the time what we claim ‘I am missing’ or ‘I feel I have everything’, you are not talking about you at all, you are talking about the conditions which we started to believe is us. Our life is much more! Your potential of living this life on this planet is much more! Is culture wrong? Not at all. Is tradition wrong? Not at all. Is society wrong? Not at all. Nothing is wrong. But when you identify yourself with anything and limit your expression of love within borders, then naturally, you can’t be happy.
