We seek happiness in attachments and possessions. Yet attachments and possessions bring us the opposite of happiness – frustration, worries, anxiety and suffering.
Where then is happiness to be found? In these two passages, Sri Chinmoy offers us two illumining answers to this question:
“Detachment is true wisdom. Detachment is our divine Divinity. Nobody can be as happy as a man who has detachment. We are under the impression that a man can be happy only when he is attached to something or to someone, but this is a great mistake. When we are attached to something or someone, we actually become a prey to them. We actually become a victim of that person or that thing. So in this world, if we want to have true joy, true peace and true divine qualities, then we must be totally detached. This detachment does not mean that we shall not work for the world; no, we shall have to work for the world, in the world, but should not allow ourselves to be caught by anything.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“Happiness can never be found in possession, either of earthly qualities and capacities or of heavenly qualities and capacities. Not in possession, not in dominion, but in cheerful union with the higher realities can we have happiness. Earthly qualities are all negative and destructive. Fear, doubt, anxiety, jealousy, insecurity — these are earthly qualities. But heavenly qualities are all positive and constructive. Peace, light, bliss, love of God, love of truth, self-giving, sacrifice, the feeling of constant oneness with the rest of the world — these are heavenly qualities. If we can identify ourselves with these heavenly qualities, then only will happiness be ours. Happiness will claim us as its very own then, and only then. There is no other way.”
– Sri Chinmoy