Volume
Vol. 6, The Alchemy of Happiness
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The Five Inclinations
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Sub-Heading
4. Being Happy
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Vol. 6, The Alchemy of Happiness
The Five Inclinations
4. Being Happy
The fourth inclination man shows is to be happy. Man seeks happiness in pleasure, in joy, but these are only shadows of happiness. The real happiness is in the heart of man. But man does not look for it. In order to find happiness, he seeks pleasure. Anything that is passing and anything that results in unhappiness is not happiness. Happiness is the very being of man. Vedantists have called the human soul Ananda, happiness, because the soul itself is happiness; that is why it seeks happiness. And because the soul cannot find itself it is always looking for something that will make it happy; but what it finds can never make it really happy, perfectly happy.
Sin and virtue, good and bad, right and wrong, can be distinguished and determined on this principle. Virtue is what brings real happiness. What is called right is that which leads to happiness. What is good is good because it gives happiness; and if it does not do so it cannot be good, it cannot be virtue, it cannot be right. Whenever man has found virtue in unhappiness he has been mistaken; whenever he was wrong he has been unhappy. Happiness is the being of man; that is why he craves for it.
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