Nobody wants to be bad, because goodness is everybody's real inner nature. Goodness is an inseparable attribute of the latent divine Consciousness in everyone. Nobody wants to be ignorant or stupid, because knowledge is the essential nature of everybody's inner being. Absolute Knowledge is the other phase of absolute Existence which is the Essence sustaining the human individual. Nobody wants to be unhappy, because happiness is the real nature of the divine Consciousness in everybody. Absolute Happiness is co-existent and co-extensive with absolute Knowledge.

Nobody wants to be restless and peaceless, because Peace is characteristic of the Image of God in everyone, - even as saltishness is characteristic of sea water. Nobody wants ugly things, because Beauty is the substance with which the divine Consciousness in us is formed. Absolute Peace and absolute Beauty are the two eyes of the absolute Existence-Knowledge-Happiness.

Nobody wants to be imperfect, because Perfection is everybody's real inner nature. Nobody wants to die, because God's Breath in everybody is Immortal. Perfection and Immortality are characteristic of the absolute Being. Discover this Divinity in yourself. Know Him in all. You will make your world an Ocean of Joy.

The Divinity is the ultimate Happiness; it is the unconditioned and infinite Happiness. The secret of gaining unending Happiness lies in establishing inner dynamic relations with the Divine.

The bee has the fullness of its joy in the flowers that bear honey. Man has the fullness of his joy only in that which bears to an absolute degree, and eternally, every quality, every delight, every power his heart longs for, and that is God.

We have no fullness of joy in that which is limited, and that which comes to an end. God, the infinite and absolute Being, Consciousness, Presence, Power, Love, Beauty, alone is unlimited and unending. The greater our consciousness of the Presence of God, in our daily lives, the more intense is the fullness of joy that we derive.

The real happiness in our life is to be measured by the extent and the degree to which we have, in knowledge, in faith, in love, in awareness, established relations with God. Those among us who experience His Presence, and live in tune with His Being and Beauty, are the happiest.

To be in the Presence of God, is to see all things through the unlimited love that God bears, to overcome every difficulty, trial, circumstance, with the dynamic knowledge of God's omnipotence, and our relations to it and to do all things in the Light of God's Wisdom and Will. The fullness of joy, power and peace belongs to those who bear the Presence of God in their awareness and experience.

Happy is the man who takes refuge in Him!

Every river that takes refuge in the ocean, acquires the vastness, the grandeur, the majesty, the power of the ocean. A creeper that entwines itself to the tall tree, acquires the conditions essential for the joy of rising into free air, and greater light and warmth. Man is limited in knowledge, power, peace, joy, freedom, life. The moment he takes refuge in God, he acquires the unlimited knowledge, strength, peace, joy, freedom, life.

God is infinitely more to our inner being, than sunshine is to the plants and trees. We need Him, far more than the sailing ships need favourable winds. We are happy, wise, powerful, royal, the moment we take refuge in the indestructible and magnificent Splendour of the timeless, all-powerful, and all-loving God. They that have abandoned their inner separation from God, and have taken refuge in His perfections, own the Empire of Happiness.

Sorrow is not permanent, it passes away. Happiness, which is the essential nature of the life of life in us, of God in us, is permanent; it cannot pass away.

No misery endures; the joy that is derived from contact with the Divine, alone endures. When we turn to God, and know Him, our miseries disappear. They burn out as does the camphor, without leaving any residue or trace behind. The moment we converse with God, our unhappiness evaporates, leaving behind no trace, even as does a drop of water dropped upon a frying pan.

Wisdom puts sorrow on its evanescent grounds, grants us right perspectives, assists us to dispel it, and turns us to the Great Reality, the source of everlasting Happiness.

Bad weather is not bad, when your mood is happy. Bad people are not bad, when your mood is happy. Bad circumstances are not bad, when your mood is happy. Bad home and bad business are not so bad, when your mood is happy.

When the mood is bad, even the good weather, good people, good circumstances, look bad. Everything is happy when your mood is happy. A happy mood can improve bad conditions, and make sunshine where gloom prevails. Therefore, continue to keep your mood inspired, illuminated, delighted, - by great thoughts, noble feelings, a right attitude, a divine view, a brave spirit.

There can be no day, without sunrise. Wait till the sun rises. As you wait, you find more and more minutes and hours are poured out.

There is no real love, without its fulfilment. Wait till the fulfilment comes. As you wait, pour out more and more love.

There is no real prayer, without its answer. Wait till the answer is given. As you wait, say more of real prayers.

There is no really good action, without its beneficial results. Wait till the results emerge. As you wait, go on doing more of really good actions.

There is no real giving, without getting, whatever form that getting might assume. Wait till you get tenfold. As you wait, go on giving more and more of your energies, goodness, intelligence, charities, services, prayers, love, sacrifices, and thus make of your life a heaven of infinite fulfilment and treasures.

All things respond to the opinion you have about them. Look upon people and things with suspicion, something bad is bound to happen. Look upon people and things with much love, inner joy, wisdom, something good is bound to emerge.

Look upon everybody as a divinity, and you are bound, at least on some day, to find them manifest something divine, at least in relation to you. When there is a divinity in you, people around you become divine in a way, if not completely.

When there is dynamism and goodness in you, people around you are coloured by your dynamism and goodness. What is more, people of goodness, dynamism and sunshine, will be attracted by you and come to you.

Much in the world, around you, depends on you. You are all-important, not only for your own peace, happiness, development, progress, but for the world's peace, happiness, development and progress.

Goodness attracts goodness. Love pulls towards itself, love. Purity befriends purity. Truth claims kinship with truth. Greatness understands and becomes one with greatness. Genius draws to itself genius. Smile evokes smile. Harmony brings more harmony. Success yields more success. Light becomes bigger by drawing close to another light.

Hatred causes hatred. Despair attracts despair. Bad feelings bring more bad feelings. Depression makes things more gloomy. Dislikes increase dislikes. Evil multiplies evil. Lies subsist by more lies.

You can always know what you are, by what you attract to yourself.

You need not say that you are just. When you are really just, you will not only find justice everywhere, but find divine Grace pouring itself into you, in many ways. You need not say that you are good. When you are really and sufficiently good, the people around you and the whole Nature, know it, feel it, experience it. You need not say that you are pure. When you are really pure, it announces itself persuasively, compellingly, in a hundred ways.

You need not say that you have sufficiently prayed, meditated, and disciplined yourself, and that God must become the object of your experience. When you are really ready, God is already at your doors. Who can hide your goodness, your purity, your sweetness? Not your face. Not your hands. Not your life. Not your circumstances. Not your enemies. None. All that is good in yourself pervades, as fragrance pervades. If you have really worked hard, struggled much, everything about you is already proclaiming it.

Not to be a slave of the senses, is freedom. Not to be driven blindly by impulses and instincts, is freedom. Not to be mastered by ignorance or superstition, dogmas or prejudices, is freedom. Not to be dictated by the ego, is freedom. Not to be the victim of any internal, psychological, emotional limitation, is freedom.

To rule the body and the mind, and not to be ruled by them, is freedom. Not to surrender oneself to anything less than that which is absolutely beautiful, infinitely peaceful, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-delightful, is freedom.

What is absolutely beautiful and infinitely peaceful, omnipotent, omniscient, but God? God is your own real inner Being, Consciousness, Delight. Who lives in God, has real freedom. When you are in God, have experience of God, you have unlimited freedom, real freedom, and no other freedom is worth the name.

Ours is a strange world. Some run away from parents, and think that it is freedom. Some challenge the laws of the government, and think it is freedom. Some upset human harmony and think it is freedom. Some run away from their married partner, and think it is freedom. Some give a full freedom to lower passions, and think it is freedom. Licence is always mistaken for liberty.

The greater the spiritual knowledge disseminated, the more illuminated, happy, peaceful, progressive, and really free humanity becomes!

May hundred joys be yours, from this day, from this hour: the joy of growing in knowledge, the joy of inspired and inspiring service in the name and for the glory of God; the joy of faith, the joy of self-control, the joy of being bigger than petty emotions, the joy of rising above the passing clouds of small desires and smaller wishes, the joy of Devotion, the joy of pursuing higher ideals and values, the joy of given peace to others, the joy of making others and yourself happy, through God-Consciousness - for, from God-Consciousness alone real Joy, real Power, real Strength, real Knowledge, real Perfection, can emerge.

When man has no higher pleasures to engage and absorb him, the disastrous pleasures of the undisciplined senses will claim him, and lead him into the dark pits of degradation, boredom, depletion of energies, lack of willpower, wreck and ruin. If the darkness of ignorance wants to damage a person's reason, will, soul, it makes that one blind with uncontrollable physical passions.

Therefore, quickly find out for yourself some one or the other - or many - of the higher objects of pleasure, such as a joyous love for selfless work, or cultural gatherings, or philosophical studies, or painting, or classical music, - or development in Devotion and in Faith, growth by practice of prayer and by meditation, or some constructive work and aim.

The joys of a thinking mind, the happiness of a loving heart, the blessedness of a God-conscious life, are freely available to everyone born into the human kingdom on this planet.

The pleasures of a wisdom that displaces anger by calmness, of controlled temper, of a mastered passion, of a withheld wrong action, are the free privileges of all people in the world.

The pleasures of breathing fresh air, of gazing on the blue sea, the beautiful Nature, the majestic mountains mantled in snow, the starlit sky, are denied to no man on earth.

Happiness from Association with the Good,   
the Noble and the Saintly

One of the sources of real happiness in daily life, lies in companionship with the noble in nature, the good in heart, the broad-minded persons of spiritual aspirations. Sweet is their speech; wise are their words; and highly dignified and self-controlled is their conduct. To be in their presence, is to be peaceful. The vibrations around them are elevating. The observation of their conduct betters our own. To develop in ourselves their qualities of nature, is to find our life enriched in its resources for peace and happiness.

Association with saints of God-experience and universal Love, is a great source of happiness. In their presence, something in us feels the divine Presence. While conversing with them, we discover that we are conversing with that which is the Divine in ourselves, but with which we could establish no communication until we came into the presence of these spiritual individuals. When we are with them, the real soul-happiness, the fundamental and superior happiness, is experienced by us.

Freedom of life emerges from liberating ourselves from whatever is weak, dark, disharmonious, unholy and disturbing in ourselves. Devotion to the search of higher knowledge, and entertainment of thoughts that lift us out of the circumstances of life, - and grant us, by that very reason, a total mastery over them, - constitute two of the intrinsic and unfailing sources of happiness.

The moment we learn to control the mind, discipline the thoughts, give a higher and more positive direction to the energies of life, we begin to develop our latent resources, hidden powers, dormant capacities, and find the world of our experience a garden for growth, the home for self-culture and inner illumination. Our best achievements, and the richness of our life, rest upon this.

Self-watchfulness, self-analysis, self-examination, are essential for the increasing order, harmony, light we can establish in the empires of our mind. Ignorance in man is unhappiness, though ignorance in inanimate nature is bliss. Knowledge and happiness are two sides of a single coin. To observe the thoughts that arise in us, and to dismiss them if they are dismal, and cherish them where they are noble and elevated, is the first step in the art of self-culture and true happiness.

Persisting and growing happiness is the natural result of the development in ourselves of the essentially moral qualities and characteristics. A heart that is full of resentment, a nature that is smitten by jealousy, a mood that is overcome by anger, cannot be happy. Therefore the development of moral nature is indispensable for the experience of happiness in daily life.

The negative qualities of personal nature which darken our lives, depress our being, and dishearten others, have to be displaced by positive qualities. Jealousy can be eliminated by benevolent feelings. Anger has to be replaced by forgiveness and understanding. A little calm thought and wisdom dispel the clouds of misunderstanding and mistrust, and enrich the harmony and the happiness of daily life. The joys of a generous nature and a self-giving heart, mind and will, liberate us into the empyrean of happiness, from the prison-houses of egoism, self-centredness and selfishness.

Truthfulness, self-control, self-reliance, spirit of service and sacrifice, grant us great moral strength, courage, influence, and found our lives upon unbreakable grounds. Sweetness of disposition, goodness of heart, charitableness in all its forms, catholicity of views, compassion for all beings, form the lasting sources of pervasive and refreshing happiness. Persons of such a nature, are strangers to mental illnesses. Psychologically, emotionally, morally, intellectually, spiritually, these qualities integrate the personality, and make for the wholeness of spirit, and the fullness of peace, joy, power and life. People who have no patience, no capacity for endurance, for adjustment and accommodation, remain most unhappy in any situation, and amidst any group of persons. They are, what is more, sources of unhappiness to others.

Moral imperfections make us weak, nervous, tired, guilty, depressed. Moral qualities make us strong, rich, happy, peaceful, brave, childlike, blessed. They keep us powerful and smiling within our own being, under all circumstances and conditions.

The heart that is not tender, kind, self-dependent, and therefore strong, brave, happy, a maker of sunshine, - dishonours the Image and Light of God in itself, puts out its own candle, spreads darkness and gloom. The heart that never gives anything, but always expects, longs for and demands things from others, is not a good heart, and therefore it will find it difficult to be happy. The heart that gives in order to receive, and warmly responds to whatever is given it, is the good heart.

The heart that is virtuous and magnanimous, the first to give, to give for the joy of giving, to give without expecting any return, looking for any reward, hoping to receive anything back, is the best heart. Such a heart owns lasting Happiness.

Therefore, the development of moral nature is very essential for the possession and free use of peace and happiness in life.

Ask not for the freedom from difficulties, but for the strength to bear, conquer and outgrow them. A baby that wants, the moment it rises, freedom from falling, will never learn to walk, and will never walk. It is not freedom from falling but the will to rise again and again, that it needs.

Difficulties strengthen you; they ripen your intelligence and develop your abilities. Your patience weakens the strength of the difficulties; your wisdom shows you new methods to lessen them, and time helps you sweep all the difficulties away. Therefore, acquire the spirit of acceptance, more patience, more wisdom, and befriend time. This is the right and the greatest way to conquer difficulties.

Bearing in your conscious inner experience an ocean of Peace, live, move, work here on earth.

Bearing in your inner divine love an ocean of Joy, walk and labour here on earth.

Let all thyself be honey, power, light, beauty.

Blessed is your simple goodness! Every day, every hour finds you born into happy new feelings and new thoughts. Always elevated and new in your inner attitudes, in your moods, in your way of reacting to things and persons, you remain so peaceful and happy.

Every day, every hour, you experience the joy of a rebirth into something great, something noble, something divine. No fluctuation of fortune, no vicissitude of life, no condition, affects the strength of your inner being, the peace of your mind or the joy of your heart. There is no day, no hour, when you are not baptised by the divine Wisdom that makes all things new.

The passage of each day takes you gently to the next and the new step on the road of evolution, to the greater stage of development and growth, to a fresh gain in inner experience. A new determination to wish welfare to all humanity, a new resolve to be a source of joy and inspiration to yourself and to others, a new task for the quick attainment of perfection, - these distinguish you.

Every day is your happy birthday. Every day you are reborn into some great aspect of God-Consciousness. Every hour there is born in you a more beautiful and new heart, a new mind, a new soul. Therefore, your life is a song of sunshine, in this world where mankind is constantly subject to unhappiness, disease and death, and where the earth constantly alternates between night and day.

Real rest, peace and happiness can only be found in, and obtained from, the inner divine Consciousness. Experience shows, there is no real, or lasting, happiness in things, and from possessions. There is eternal happiness only in the inner divine Consciousness, in the divine Being.

That which is imperishable, perfect, eternal and absolute, alone is the bearer of lasting, real happiness. That which is perishable, fleeting and limited, cannot yield happiness. Therefore, our sense-pleasures are, because of their fleeting character and negative after-effects, not real and lasting pleasures; they are dependent on the external objects, and on the instrumentality of the senses. Whereas real joy and real peace are independent of external things and the bodily senses. The inner divine Consciousness is the source of every kind of happiness, peace, power, grace, wisdom and perfection. This real happiness is deep down in our inner consciousness, in the Kingdom of God within us. Let us silence a little our outer emotional, mental, psychological commotions, and gaze, with the light of inner intelligence, upon the all-peaceful and all-blissful divine Consciousness within.

The spiritual discipline of incessant mental adoration of the timeless and all-inclusive God, leads us to the experience of the various powers and attributes of the wonderful divine Consciousness; an adoration in which we are conscious that it is not we that act, but that God acts; an adoration in which we are absolutely certain that it is not we who live, but that God lives in us; an adoration in which we are not aware of any force issuing from or belonging to ourselves, but only of that which is the almighty Power.

We are wise to the extent we know God, the Infinity of Knowledge. We are happy to the extent we are conscious of God, the Infinity of Delight. We are peaceful and perfect to the extent we establish active relations with God, the Infinity of Peace and Perfection.

- Swami Omkarananda