Be Happy!

Self Inquiry—Happiness Index…

Forthright answers required:

(a) We all have ups and downs but overall how really happy are

you? Mark on this scale where you think you are at this point in your life:

1--------2--------3--------4--------5--------6--------7--------8--------9

Unhappy Sometimes Happy Always Happy

(b) Read below and mark the three things you plan to do to move

your score up a notch?

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In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says:

“The search for happiness gives impetus to life…

___ 1) All beings join the endless hunt for happiness but very few find it.

___ 2) This level of real happiness comes only after long practice.

___ 3) Sporadic, halfhearted attempts to achieve happiness do not succeed.

___ 4) Those who do achieve everlasting happiness have found the key to ending all sorrow in life!

___ 5) We can understand happiness in terms of the three guna forces of nature.

Sattvic Happiness:

___ 6) Sattvic happiness is the serenity of mind that meditation brings. It is the sweet joy that comes with Self-Realization.

___ 7) Like all things good, it is hard work in the beginning and sheer joy later, bitter at first but sweet in the end.

___ 8) The sweet fountain of lasting bliss flows from Atma, the True Self Within.

___ 9) You can find this bliss only inside through abhyasa yoga—constant, steadfast, unremitting practice at being happy.

Rajasic Happiness:

___10) Rajasic happiness is just the opposite of sattvic happiness—it is sweet at first, bitter later.

___11) This ‘happiness’ is the temporary pleasure obtained from the contact of your senses with objects in the world.

___12) Pursue this (rajasic) type of ‘happiness’ and you,

like almost everyone, invite the pain that always, always accompanies worldly pleasure.

___13) Relying on one’s senses for enjoyment, especially

if it becomes compulsive and out of control, robs one’s strength, stamina, and capacity for spiritual growth.

___14) Spiritual wisdom fades when you seek happiness through the senses.

___15) Pleasure and its corollary, pain, are what one drinks

in the world; real bliss is what one sips within.

Tamasic Happiness:

___16) Finally, Tamasic happiness is born of dark delusion.

___17) This dim ‘happiness’ is but a dull, non-comprehending, sleep-like existence, bitter at both the beginning and end.

___18) The only pleasure in tamasic ‘happiness’ is the meager satisfaction of sleep, or the perverse enjoyment that comes with idle pursuits and neglect of duty.” – Krishna

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