What is happiness ?

Happiness is a state of the self. The Hinduism says – when the ego ceases to be or when the ego is deeply absorbed then the individual concerned will feel happy. Contrary to the common thinking, ‘happiness’ could never come from outside, from the objects of the world but, happiness could ONLY come from within. Even if the mind is not functioning – there might not be the feeling of happiness because the ‘ego’ is still there but, when the ‘ego’ ceases to be then only the self or the individual concerned feels or gets the feeling of ‘happiness’. The intensity of happiness depends on the extent of forgetting or losing or decrease of the ‘ego’. The so called ‘nirvana’ or ‘satori’ or ‘samadhi’ or ‘moksha’ ONLY will destroy the ‘ego’ completely so, naturally these only could bestow bramhanand, the endless joy.

For example take a person observing a movie. He will get joy to the extent he involves himself in the movie. If the movie is not absorbing him he will not feel the job out of it.

The thought process should come to an end and the ego too should decrease or vanish – ONLY then one can experience ‘joy’.


If just the mind ceases then only the feeling of ‘peace’ is possible but, not joy.


In order to feel more joy the individual concerned should be more sensitive. This is because, more the sensitivity - lesser the ‘ego’. It is a general observation in the world that – people of lesser ego will be happier. These days the ‘ego’ level of the common people is very high, this is why – ordinary things fail to absorb the people. A child has less levels of ego so, it can enjoy the very common things like the rainbow, drops of rain, the mud, the butterflies, etc., but, we – the grownups fail to feel joy out of these because, our ego levels are very high. In other words, we are not sensitive enough to enjoy these common things in life and world around. We need extraordinary things in order to get absorbed or decrease our ego levels that are extraordinary.

The Hindu sastras or scriptures claim that – there are mainly NINE rasas [tastes] or feelings that could give joy to an individual or the self – based on the happenings from out site world, note that the spiritual joy comes from within. Some of these stimulants of joy are – sex, anger, fear, wonder.

All these will stop the mind flow and destroy or minimize the ‘ego’ to certain extent and thereby could bestow happiness. Among these nine rasas the srungar ras or ‘sex’ is said to be the best as it gives the deepest or the maximum joy among all these nine rasas, it destroys the ‘ego’ relatively deeply.

What happens in sex is this. The bold will flow down from the brain towards the sexual organs and due to this the mind will not function so, it gives elated feelings but, in sex too only the pure and sensitive persons can enter deeper realms of joy or orgasm. If the mind is disturbed or in the case of rash persons - then only the feeling of relaxation is possible, but not orgasm because the ‘ego’ is more in them and it will not dissolve even in sex.

But, all these nine rasas could only give you temporary and minimal joy for these could dissolve the ‘ego’ only for few moments. These outer objects could never confer the endless joy onto an individual – Hinduism says.

In order to get the endless and boundless joy one has to kill or dissolve the ego – this is the only way to attain joy because the Hinduism says joy is a state of the self, the soul. In order to attain it - the barrier, the ‘ego’ should be destroyed. Unless this is done – there is no way to find the true joy.

The joys we are getting using the objects of the world are all duplicates or glimpses or drops of joy – the Hinduism says. The TRUE and ENDLESS joy of ocean is present deep within – and the goal of life is to find that invaluable treasure. The purpose and goal of all the religions is nothing but to teach a way to that TRUE wealth of joy present deep within.