Cultivate contentment An effective source of
happiness
A major weakness with man is
his lasting discontent. Through this alone he remains ever unhappy. There is no
limit to covetousness; the more one gets the more does covetousness grow.
Covetousness does not cease with the attainment of objects of enjoyment; on the
other hand, the range of covetousness goes on widening the more one is able to
get objects of enjoyment. The capacity to enjoy luxuries may come to an end,
but covetousness does not cease. It ever keeps the wealthiest man as well as a
man owing the most extensive dominion indigent. Covetousness never grows old,
it enjoys perpetual youth.
He alone is supremely happy,
whose mind remains contended under all circumstances. In fact contentment alone
constitutes that supreme wealth on getting which a man remains ever rich. No
situation can make him miserable or improved. The exalted state which is
attained through contentment is higher and more exalted even than the position
of the greatest emperor.
He alone who is richly
endowed with contentment is a really pious soul. He who does not feel contented
even on renouncing his hearth and home can never be a pious soul. He for his
part remains burning in the fire of discontent day and night. Contentment alone
is the supremely soothing substance which serves as a balm illumines those
phases of life which are sombre through gloom.
The mind of a man who is not
contented can never get concentrated. It never remains distracted and restless.
Discontent converts a man into a thief, a cheat, a dacoit and a demon usurping
others’ rights. Discontent alone fosters ill-will, anger, animosity and
violence. Virtues like amiability, tranquility, love and a spirit of service
never appear in the life of a discontented man. Even if any of these does
appear for a few moments it gets blasted by the fire of discontent.
Contentment follows from the
conviction that the world is transient, full of suffering and unreal, or from
faith in the benign dispensation of the Lord. Every worldly situation is,
really speaking, either a mere illusion, nonentity, or a pastime of the Lord,
in which various Rasas or emotions come into play. If it is an illusion, there
is no room whatsoever for discontent. If, on the other hand, it is a pastime,
every pas time is full of supreme joy following from the sweet and benign
vision of the Lord. The mind gets absorbed into it.
They alone who continue to
burn in the fire of discontent, kindle the fire of discontent in the heart of
others and inflame them. They allege that progress is out of the question
without discontent. A man seeking progress must remains discontented. This is,
however, a distorted picture presented to their perverted judgment by their
discontented mind. When a man’s intellect gets clouded by ignorance and his
judgement perverted, he comes to recognize everything as the reverse of what it
is. Hence taking evil to be good, he not only chooses the evil but also seeks
to represent it as good and communicate it to others.
A wave of joy continuously
flowing as a matter of course from the inner being of a man who is contented of
mind affects those living about him and gives them a share of regard to pairs
of opposites like a friend and foe, joy and sorrow, obloquy and praise and turn
out to be a devotee of God; and he alone can offer true worship to the Lord
through his peaceful life.
Contentment does not consist
in indolence, sloth, negligence and so on. A contented man alone can really
perform good deeds with a settled mind; for his mind remains tranquil and his
intellect is unsullied, discriminating and capable of correct judgment.
The best means of attaining
supreme happiness is “Contentment”. A discontented man will be ever unhappy,
whether object of whatever description and whatever situation he may be able to
attain. Contentment, however in the matter of God-remembrance or God-love is a
great hindrance. Contentment is helpful in the domain of worldly luxuries and
an obstacle in the way of God-remembrance. Therefore never be contended with
God-remembrance. The target can never be reached in God –remembrance. Spiritual
effort will ever be inadequate and love for God can never reach the highest
limit.
A sensual man, on the other
hand, feels ever discontented in the matter of sense-gratification. He
invariably finds everything he gets deficient and Jongs to have more. He seeks
to do more, much more than what he actually does towards that end. With this
feeling of discontent he continues to extend his sphere of activity, with the
consequence that, fastening himself on all sides he gets irrevocably enmeshed
and is beset day and night by enjoy peace. So far, however, as spiritual
discipline and God-remembrance are concerned, he feels ever contented. In the
first instance he feels no necessity for them; if at all he does anything, he
does a very little in a limited quantity and for a short while and assumes that
he is doing a lot. That is why spiritual discipline or God-remembrance is not
possible for him and the result is that true happiness and real peace are
withheld from him.
If, out of the twenty-four
hours comprising a full day, one spends a few minutes in God-remembrance and
devotee more than twenty three hours to the enjoyment of luxuries and to
endeavours for procuring them, his mind naturally cleaves to luxuries and to
endeavours for procuring them, his mind naturally cleaves to luxuries and does
not get focused on God. Failure of the mind to get focused on God constitutes
the wastage of human life and is a grievous error.
Attachments to luxuries and
the craving for them make’s one life sensual. Sensuality deprives a man of his
judgement and a man who has lost his reason starts doing things which ought not
to be done by him and which he has been personally deprecating an denouncing.
Addiction to sinful pursuits takes away his disgust for them in the first
instance and then he begins to look upon them and then to glory in sinful acts,
so that his life gets steeped in sin and the result is that he departs from the
world with an endless stock of sins. In this way not only is his human life
wasted—not only does he miss the supreme and ultimate goal of human goal of
human existence in the shape of God-Realization – but as a result of his sin he
is compelled to descend birth after birth into demoniac wombs such as those of
a dog and swine, a fiend and ogre and worms and insects, and to suffer dreadful
tortures in hell. Hence his human life is not only frittered away, but also
proves to be a source of rank mischief. Therefore, always embrace contentment
in the field of sense-gratification – remain contented with whatever may be got
you; but never feels contented with your spiritual endeavour. Go on
intensifying it.
True wealth consists in
God-remembrance alone; that alone is the highest riches. Lack of
God-remembrance alone is abject penury and a dire calamity. In God-remembrance
alone lies your supreme wisdom and good fortune; lack of God—remembrance alone
is appalling sin. Therefore, practice God-remembrance day and night. Indulge in
the thought of God with your mind, chant the names and praised of God with your
speech and render service and offer worship to God through every benignant
activity carried on with your body. Remaining engaged in God-remembrance as
aforesaid day and night, steep your life in God remembrance. Then alone is
human life worth the name and there lies its utility.