Happiness & The Spiritual Journey

We examine why and how the spiritual journey produces great joy. The foundation for this undertaking is knowledge of my spiritual identity as being separate from the temporary identities I assume – age, sex, race, body-type, etc.

The foundational and transformative spiritual practice on this journey is, of course, kirtan meditation, and as the famous saying goes – “chant, dance and be happy”.

Transcript

Princeton University song Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya So this is the concluding talk in the series for the month on happiness.

And it's fundamentally a little bit of a look at the happiness in relation to our spiritual journey.

We are meant to be happy.

That is why we crave and desire happiness.

It is our actual eternal spiritual condition to exist in the state of happiness.

But having become lost and wandering about in search of some form of fulfillment,

Some safe place,

We attempt in this journey known as life to find these things.

And we're fundamentally not really successful.

Sorry if that's disappointing,

But it's just the truth of things,

The reality of things.

But we're not taught to be very self-critical or introspective to search within.

This is not part of the way the modern world works.

We live in an incredibly challenging time where we are subjected in amazing ways to so many influences and so much messaging.

In your daily life,

In your daily life,

Just think of the last couple of days,

Saturday,

Friday,

How much time did you spend engaging in or hearing someone speak about spiritual subject matter?

I think if most people are truthful about that,

It's almost little to no time for the vast majority of people.

And herein lies this big problem that we have.

There is one chapter in the Bhagavad Gita.

It's the chapter entitled Raja Vidya,

The king of all knowledge.

And in the second shloka or verse in that chapter,

Which I'll read in a minute,

One of my spiritual teachers has commented that what has been presented is the king of all confidential knowledge in that chapter.

And the foundational principle being discussed is our spiritual nature.

And when I say our,

I'm not referring to a body that also has a spiritual nature.

No,

I'm talking about you,

The spiritual being residing within the body.

We spend the majority of our life absolutely engrossed in this false idea that the body is who I am.

This is how I identify myself.

This is how I relate to the world.

This is how I relate to others.

This is how I seek happiness.

This is how I seek love.

It's all through the vehicle and not in relation to the driver of that vehicle.

So the foundation of this particular chapter and why it is considered or called the king of all knowledge,

The foundation or the starting point is this real need to recognize my true self.

So one of my teachers states,

Generally people are not educated in this confidential knowledge.

They are educated in external knowledge,

External knowledge.

That's rather interesting.

As far as ordinary education is concerned,

People are involved with so many departments,

Politics,

Sociology,

Physics,

Chemistry,

Mathematics,

Astronomy,

Engineering,

Etc.

There are so many departments of knowledge all over the world and many huge universities,

But there is unfortunately no university or educational institution where the science of the soul,

The science of the spirit soul is instructed.

And yet the soul is the most important part of the body.

Without the presence of the soul,

The body has no value.

Death tells us that one.

Still people are placing great stress on the bodily necessities of life,

Not caring for the vital soul within.

This is the predicament and the world in which we live.

I was just walking down the street a little earlier.

I was here a bit earlier doing some Japa meditation and I walked past a phone booth there and it's plastered with these posters calling for a revolution.

That don't we know how urgent is the need to address climate change and the consequences of it?

Don't we know?

We need a revolution in our thinking and our focus.

That's like,

Okay,

Well,

Good luck with that one.

Good luck because we're in conflict.

Because we have only,

Only clinging to the idea of the physical existence has been everything and the utterly important.

And we've created a dynamic where fulfilling,

Stimulating the desires of the mind and the body has become the focus and trying to fulfill those desires in so many different ways.

Man,

That's the whole thing.

And if that is going to be your foundation,

How can you live responsibly?

How?

You can't.

Because every time,

Every time you're going to go for the bait without realizing that there's a hook in there,

Every time we're going to do it.

So this,

We were caught in this unfortunate cycle that cannot produce anything but unhappiness.

Yeah,

You can get some temporary rushes and things can be okay for a while.

But we're caught in this situation.

The solution is two things.

One is we really need a clear idea of who we are and what's really going to be important.

What's of tremendous value.

What's of the utmost importance.

And that will lead us to not rebel against or turn against the world or anything in it.

Quite to the contrary,

Actual spiritual knowledge will make it so that we live a balanced life.

Without the injection of this underlying spiritual truth about who we really are,

We're not going to be able to live a balanced life and society will be unbalanced.

People's psychology,

Their emotions,

Everything will be unbalanced.

We need the balance restored with spiritual understanding so that we can begin to live a different way.

So this knowledge is really important.

But more important is the knowledge,

Is how to overcome conditioning.

I watched a professional psychologist talk about the nature of the way social media works,

Just the like button for instance.

And somebody was asking him,

He was talking about all the tremendous problems now that are beginning to surface.

It's like what?

You didn't know that was going to happen?

You've got one of the founders of Facebook openly in an interview a couple of years ago stating that their whole purpose in the development of the tools and the programs and the platform was to try and get hold of as much of your attention as possible and keep it,

Retain it.

And so then somebody raised,

Well,

You mean it's like people develop an addiction.

He said,

No,

This is not an addiction.

Addictions are actually comparatively easy to deal with.

There are modalities,

There are tools available to help people deal with addictions.

You put people in certain environments and you use these tools.

He said this is different.

This is conditioning.

And the conditioning cannot be overcome in the same way that addictions can be overcome.

And I thought that was rather insightful.

And this is the truth that has been presented in all of the great spiritual texts that we become conditioned,

Not just addicted.

We become conditioned by material conception.

So to hear the truth is not enough.

There has to be something that brings about an internal change.

And that internal change will happen when you engage in an appropriate process that will bring an internal transformation that will actually bring about a change of consciousness.

In the second shloka or verse in the ninth chapter of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita,

It states that this knowledge,

The king of knowledge,

It is the king of education.

It is the most secret of all secrets.

Not secret because it's kind of like we're not going to talk about it,

We're going to hide it away.

No it's secret because even though it is spoken out in the open,

It's just like,

It just flies by like,

You know,

Sorry,

Don't get it,

Can't relate.

It's gone.

It is the purest of knowledge and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization,

It is the perfection of dharma or righteousness.

It is everlasting and it is joyfully performed.

It's quite interesting the Sanskrit for this is susukham,

It's like extreme happiness,

The process.

You know,

There's a couple of sort of social programs I'm involved in.

One of them is with a foundation that deals with people that are victims of physical violence and sexual violence within domestic environments or from childhood and they've really become like so damaged,

I mean like so damaged,

Like shaking and just,

And we do these,

We go there,

We teach them the meditation and mindfulness and I go there with Tim and it's just like,

Isn't it far out the way,

I mean for them,

Their experience because they're in such difficult and trying situations,

Their experience of what it is to hear this knowledge and these spiritual sounds and to embrace them is an incredible relief for them just from what they've been going through for years and it shows in their face,

It shows in their demeanor.

Same thing in the prisons,

You go inside,

Hardened criminals,

I mean and the first time they'll come in and they do,

It's a voluntary program meaning they can show up if they wish,

We call it freedom from the inside and when they first come and sit down,

A lot of the guys are heavily tattooed and everybody works out in jail and they sit there like this and they got this,

You know,

That's really heavy demeanor and it's just like,

You know,

Really challenging but after like two or three visits,

You see this incredible change where they come in and sit down and like little boys,

You know,

Hands between the legs and just like,

You know,

Really now really going to listen and they're respectful because you're going out of your way voluntarily to try and help them but the main thing is the joy that is experienced from the process.

How unfortunate state is this?

Any of you that are here or listening to this,

You've felt somehow drawn for whatever reason,

There is an inclination to at least pay some attention.

I don't know how many people have really attempted to adopt some of the meditative practices that we do like the Kirtan and stuff and use some of the tools that we have available online but it is when you begin on a daily basis to engage in the spiritual path process that big internal transformation will occur.

We have many things to overcome,

Much conditioning to overcome and so for most of us it is going to be a gradual process but it does not prevent us from experiencing the great joy that comes from folk in a focused way to take these transcendental or spiritual sounds within and to literally bathe,

It's like you've gone and immersed yourself in the ocean or a river to actually bathe in these transcendental sounds.

There is no surer way for you to find happiness in life and that happiness will be a reflection of the happiness that you begin to experience by regularly engaging in this process.

If Vishwa mentioned,

You know,

The chant,

Dance and be happy,

We're kind of a little bit stiff.

It's okay to loosen up a bit if you want to stand up and sway or clap your hands.

In fact,

It's encouraged.

You know there's one ancient Vedic text and it has this reference to just like black crows sitting in a tree.

We don't have crows here.

We've got magpies,

Right,

In New Zealand,

Crows.

Crows are really quite.

.

.

Personally,

I find them a little bit disgusting.

They make this really beautiful sound.

Yeah,

Sure.

And they,

Just as they say,

Just as a person who claps their hand under the tree and all the crows fly off,

Says that the crows of bad karma,

The fruit of bad karma and the load of unhappiness that sits upon our shoulders like black crows,

That when we dance and clap our hands during this meditation,

This kirtan meditation,

It actually causes those crows to fly and we will feel,

You know,

A weight lifted from us.

But it does require that we actually become somewhat absorbed.

We must undertake.

If we're just here and our mind's all over the place and we're thinking about this and phone's gone off and,

You know,

There's all kinds of things and I'm only half here,

I only get half benefit.

If I completely open myself and take this on board,

Then I can derive a much greater,

A much fuller benefit.

And it is joyful.

It is joyful.

And the amazing thing is I have traveled to so many different countries and taught the process and engaged with so many different types of people.

And regardless of what country,

What cultural background you come from,

Everybody's heart feels a warmth and a happiness from this activity.

This is the very beginning of the experience of the greatest form of happiness that you can ever possibly experience.

So I do encourage you to try to really embrace this process.

Unfortunately,

Many people,

They have to go down these bad pathways.

They have to practically crash and burn before they sort of like wake up and decide,

I need to do something about this.

We have this tendency to hold out hope,

A vain hope that some perfection can be had from this world and from the material energy and our interaction with it.

No,

I'm sorry.

It's not like that.

I don't mean to be pessimistic,

But we do need to be realistic.

You are a spiritual being.

You need spiritual nutrition,

Spiritual sustenance.

You need spiritual experience.

You need to be able to live a more balanced life instead of total absorption and that which is doomed to end.

The body will come to an end.

Relationships will come to an end.

Material experience will come to an end.

And yet our total focus is on that which cannot last.

And that's just not a very sound foundation for living a happy and a very balanced life.

When we add the spiritual component to our life,

When our relationships,

Our connections,

Our work,

The things we do in life now have a spiritual underpinning,

A spiritual foundation,

Everything changes.

They all become wonderful.

All of them become wonderful.

Okay?

So we will do that.

We will chant.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

We will do that.

Reviews

Very insightful and I loved the kirtan at the end. Thank you 🙏🏻 🌺 🌱

Blissful.❤️❤️❤️
Loved your slow, meaningful voice. I will listen to this again and again...