Our Inner Being is Basically Blissful
It is incorrect to say that a thing that we very keenly desire will always fetch satisfaction. The royal road, the surest way, is to annihilate desire itself. So let us try to see how we can get rid of desire altogether. True, lasting joy and contentment can only come if we live for God. They come the moment we determine to treat God as the last, the only resort.
The more the attachment to worldly things, the deeper we sink into the mire of misery. Worldly pleasures come even without asking, only if your luck lies that way; we need neither beg nor pray for them. Once we decide on treating Rama as our sole support, we can shed all dread of worldly attractions. To live in never-failing trust in divine backing takes the sting out of worldly attractions; indeed, if we live in a constant awareness of God, we have full insurance against worldly temptations, for we will automatically be ever on guard against them.
We celebrate a festival with great e' clat, but as a day the festive day is in no way different from other days; the circumstances, dangers and difficulties of the previous day prevail unchanged. And yet, we momentarily connive at them and make the day festive. What we do then, can we not do every day? We should treat every day as a festive day by keeping a happy attitude. What we have to do is to live in God, the fountainhead of everlasting joy. This divine joy is so powerful that once we taste it we shall find that even the highest of pleasures in the world pale into utter insipidity. Bliss, indeed, is a characteristic of God. That we at all think of pain, sorrow, misery, is a marvel, for, that God is ever present within us. It happens because we ourselves prevent Him to disclose Himself; we smother His joyful presence with our ego. To discover the true nature of this ego, we have first to quieten the hubbub, the tumult of the senses, descend into our true selves, and look for joy; whereupon we find God the fountainhead of perennial bliss. This search is the real purpose of human life, and to merge into God is its true consummation. For one whose happiness is never disturbed, every day is a festive day.
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