Happiness is an illusion

Not very many people will accept Krishna consciousness philosophy and even if they do will struggle to continue. The reason is they find it difficult to accept that there is no happiness in this material world and that all happiness is simply an illusion. People don't like to hear this rather negative statement. To think there is no happiness in this world leaves us only with the opposite which is misery. People don't like this idea. So they reject this philosophy off the bat or they find intellectual reasons to refute this philosophy.

The whole modern educational, economical and political system is designed to promote this idea of seeking happiness. It is even in the US Declaration of Independence. In the famous Declaration of Independence of USA states that the Creator has given us rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The statement ends with happiness meaning we have life and liberty to become happy. But then in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna the creator says there is only misery in this material world. Whatever we experience in the name of material prosperity and happiness according to Krishna is only His illusory potency bewildering the conditioned souls.

If misery is true, and happiness is an illusion in this world, how can we test for it and actually intellectually accept such a grave statement. Quality of a product is normally tested through consumer reports and satisfaction surveys after people have used or experienced the product. When I say after, I mean at the end of usage. It can be the end of one time usage or multiple time usages. Still the quality is tested at the end. Using the same idea, if we want to test the quality of life at the end of life in this world then we have to agree the end in this world always ends in separation or deterioration and the ultimate end is death. Separation, deterioration or death is not a happy state. Lets be honest this is the reality and this is what Krishna is indicating that there is deterioration in the form of disease and there is separation ultimately in the form of death.

When I was ten years old, my dad put me in a boarding school and hence had to be separated beyond my control. It was difficult because I was put in an alien environment. Similarly in the USA, children leave home invariably when they reach eighteen years to college or some other destination. There is separation. If temporary separation is painful, then one can only imagine the ultimate separation or death. It is painful and irreversible.

So any sober and intelligent person will acknowledge this idea of temporariness and conclude that the end is not happy. If the end is not happy or rather miserable then per the consumer report, we can say this material life is miserable and that there is no happiness and that that happiness is an illusion.

Why am I saying all this, I am saying this because we should stop spending our valuable time desperately looking for happiness and pleasure in this world and start looking for the alternative. Krishna says that alternative is seeking His shelter. By seeking His shelter we can cross beyond this temporary reality and place ourselves in an eternal environment and this is the goal of a happy life.

By chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra everyday, one can withstand the miseries of this world and find peace under Krishna's protection. Please chant Hare Krishna.

Hare Krishna