The Goal Of Meditation Is Happiness

It's very simple really – the purpose of yoga is to adopt a regular practice of meditation. And the purpose of meditation is happiness. But what does that mean?

There is a beautiful kirtan at the end of the lecture. The words are: Aum Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya Aum Hari Aum. Please feel free to chant along with us.

Transcript

Gopala,

Rovindera,

Mahala,

Adana,

Omohana Gopala,

Rovindera,

Mahala,

Adana,

Omohana Huddy ball.

So,

Is the sound okay?

Yeah.

The purpose of yoga,

Of course depends what you mean by yoga,

But as most people understand yoga particularly in the Western world,

The purpose of yoga is to come to the platform of meditation.

If one does not come to the platform of meditation,

Then one is simply engaged in a very healthy form of physical exercise or gymnastics.

And what is the purpose of meditation?

Happiness.

Okay,

Now we can all go home.

When we say happiness,

I'd ask you to just,

If you like,

Close your eyes and just think for a second,

What does this word mean to me?

What is the meaning of happiness?

You know,

We are told so many things.

You've heard me complaining before.

Coca-Cola with a new ad,

Open happiness.

It's like,

Give me a break.

You think that stuff in that bottle and those bubbles are going to induce happiness?

No.

So we've been fed lots of different lies and ideas about what is happiness,

But these are very shallow.

The great sages,

They spent much time contemplating the meaning of happiness and seeking to experience it.

Happiness is actually a spiritual condition.

It is not a material condition.

You ask a kid what makes you happy,

They'll say ice cream.

Okay,

Let's sit down and we're going to eat ice cream for the next three days.

Nothing else,

Just ice cream.

It becomes very quickly a painful experience.

You ask somebody with an eating disorder how much happiness is derived from the strong urge to eat and then trying to fulfill that urge.

There's no real happiness attached to that.

There is some temporary experience,

Temporary flash.

You ask the person who takes drugs of any form,

Particularly the nasty ones like meta-ephetamines,

P,

You know,

Before having a hit feeling the tremendous pull of physical addiction and mental addiction.

They think that if I can just get a hit,

I will be happy.

You ask anybody that's dealing with any form and there's a huge variety in number of different addictions.

If you just follow that path of sensual stimulation,

How happy do you actually become?

And of course the answer is you never become happy.

And the more you go down that path,

The more unhappy you become.

So what is this happiness that we seek?

What is it that we are looking for?

A big part of our problem is that we have such limited experience in this lifetime.

We've tried a certain number of things.

We've been exposed by society and whatever to a certain number of things.

We've given it a blast.

It doesn't really deliver.

It sort of creates a deeper yearning for something to fill up that space and provider.

But it's not happiness.

There is an enormous difference between sensual stimulation or sensual pleasure and actual happiness.

They're not the same and they're not connected.

Sensual stimulation does not provide happiness.

The sooner we can get a grip on that truth,

The better your life will become.

I'm not advocating,

You know,

People can do what they want,

But at least be clear-eyed in your understanding that I may do a whole variety of.

.

.

I may engage in a whole variety of activities and get all kinds of stimulation from it,

But it does not satisfy me.

It does not fill up my heart.

It does not take away the anxiety,

The anxiousness,

The emptiness.

The happiness that we speak of when we are talking about the goal of yoga and meditation is happiness.

It will be experienced by the majority of practitioners in a gradual but increasing way.

It will begin to remove the anxiousness of our heart.

It will begin to remove the feeling of a lack of fulfillment.

It will begin to fill up this space bit by bit.

And the more that we are able to become immersed in this meditative practice,

And when I speak of this meditative practice,

I'm speaking of mantra meditation,

The meditation upon these spiritual or transcendental sounds.

When we receive them from a proper source,

They carry enormous potency which begin to deliver on this promise to remove the sadness of my heart,

To remove the emptiness of my heart,

And to begin to give me a taste for that which I am always hankering.

We hanker for the positive experience of happiness.

And if one is able to practice this form of meditation with a heart that is filled with humility,

If we can practice in our life great tolerance,

In the Bhagavad Purana there is a beautiful definition of tolerance to patiently endure unhappiness.

For life we experience unhappiness,

And rather than seeking to suppress it and to cover it and hide it,

If we learn to just patiently endure this while engaging in a positive spiritual process of this mantra meditation,

Meditation upon this transcendental sounds,

Gradually the empty heart begins to be filled.

And the more it becomes filled,

The more satiated we become,

The more able we are to deal with life.

Life is inseparable from problems.

That is the nature of it.

Accept that reality.

Don't try to avoid and run away.

I'm not saying that you should seek unhappiness or difficulty.

No.

It will come of its own accord.

The happiness that we speak of is an eternal condition.

Material pleasure has a beginning,

And anything that has a beginning will always come to an end.

And when it comes to an end,

We get an anxiety,

We feel distressed.

There is a beautiful verse in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita,

And it describes the material experience of so-called happiness.

It says,

That which in the beginning tastes like nectar and then gradually becomes like poison,

Bitter like poison,

Is the nature of so-called material happiness.

We should not seek out,

Nor should we avoid material pleasure.

It will be there.

It comes and it goes.

But we should not make this the focus of our life and the purpose of our existence.

It is not.

We are eternal.

Our need for happiness is eternal.

And it is only that which is eternal that will fill up this space,

Satiate this empty heart,

And begin to awaken in us the most amazing spiritual experience that goes from a mild pleasantness or happiness to a feeling or an experience of great transcendental ecstatic happiness.

This is the purpose of yoga.

This is the purpose of meditation.

You have a process.

You have been handed something that is both authentic.

It is potent.

One must now take the time to create a regular practice of this chanting of these spiritual sounds.

And in due course of time,

We become purified.

The heart becomes pacified.

It becomes satiated.

And we experience adorning,

A gentle,

And then become stronger,

A very powerful awakening of transcendental happiness.

I cannot do it for you.

No one can do it for another person.

We must ourselves undertake this process.

No one is disqualified.

No one is unqualified.

You can be the worst person.

You can have done the worst things in your life.

And it does not deprive you of this possibility because it is part of your eternal spiritual nature.

It's already there.

It has simply become covered.

This process of meditation upon these spiritual sounds clears away all of the debris and dust and mud and gunk that has covered our heart for so long.

Gradually then we will begin to experience this transcendent reality.

It's the most wonderful experience.

And that's it,

Folks.

That's the offer.

Okay?

People know.

Sounds like a good deal,

Yeah?

Sign me up.

You don't join anything.

You don't belong to anything.

You simply adopt in your own life this spiritual practice.

Okay?

So with that we will chant.

What shall we chant?

I was going to do Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

But we've lost our projector tonight.

We like that one?

Okay,

We're doing that.

This mantra is the invocation mantra of a text called the Bhagavat Purana.

This text was written by Srila Vyasadeva.

We are coming in the line of Srila Vyasadeva.

After he had compiled all of the Vedas,

He decided that he had not completed things and wanted to write something specifically about the awakening of this condition,

The awakening of spiritual love and happiness.

And the invocation mantra in that text,

The very large book that he wrote with 18,

000 verses or shlokas,

Was this Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya.

So we will sing this mantra and follow it with Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Om Namo Bhagavati Vasudevaya,

Om Hari Om.

Thank you very much.

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