Vedanta and happiness

Everyone wants to be happy — it’s the main goal of life that needs no explanation. Happiness for happiness’ sake. Everything we do is just a way to achieve it. Yet from childhood we’re fed the deferred life syndrome. Just finish school, get through college, find a job, make money, buy a car, an apartment… Just a little more and I’ll really start living! It’s so close, just hang in there a bit longer. The arrival fallacy. Human happiness is always one step ahead.

Money appeared, so you want to spend it. Bought a car — already need a new one. The wish list grows faster than it gets fulfilled. We’ll never be 100% happy. Happiness quickly evaporates from the situations where it arose, and we return to the same level.

So I buy a house to feel better. Is the happiness contained in the house itself? Does the seller feel worse? No. The music I listen to doesn’t bring joyful feelings to the neighbors. So the happiness isn’t in the music either. Where is it then?

Advaita and Vedanta are often used as synonyms. Vedanta is the broader philosophical system of Hinduism that explores the nature of ultimate reality, the “self,” and the relationship between them. Advaita represents a philosophical tradition within Vedanta directed at understanding the non-dual nature of reality.

Vedanta offers a foundation for achieving a permanently happy state. All happiness resides only within us. The problem is that we search for it where it doesn’t exist. It’s not outside.

Wait — if happiness is always inside me, why don’t I feel it? It’s hidden from us, first by “impurities” — desires, anger, greed, delusions, arrogance, jealousy. It’s like trying to see the bottom through murky water. Second, by the wandering mind, which distorts the picture like a current in a river. And finally — by ignorance, the failure to understand that the source is within. The treasure is buried right under your feet. Vedanta helps you find it.