7 Steps to Happiness

According to SSS Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji, there are 7 steps to happiness, “The known formula for happiness is: Commitment will give you character. That will give you dignity. That will give you divinity. That will give you grace. That will give you the power to sacrifice. Then you’ll feel achieved, and you’ll be happy”.

1. Commitment - Commitment to your word means doing what you say and saying what you’ll do in all of your personal and business activities. Your word should be final, definitive and exact. There are no maybes or excuses in a commitment, it is final. For example, if you say you’ll be somewhere at 9:00am, then you should be there without any excuse, irrespective of circumstances. Otherwise you become a victim of circumstances and lose the power of your word to command your environments. If however something arises that cannot be avoided, then you always must honour your word by letting the person know you can’t make it at 9:00am. By informing the person, you are honouring the value of your word, and this increases the power of your word. Additionally, you will discover there are many levels to commitment. There are those commitments you make to your friends informally, to those commitments you make to the government formally, to those commitments you make to you yourself. An informal commitment may be just calling someone up who you said you would call, or buying a toy for your child that you agreed to buy. A formal commitment may be driving at the specified speed limit on the road, or discarding a train ticket for a journey you’ve made even if no conductor stamped your ticket. A commitment to yourself may be walking to work every morning, or eating no chocolate for two weeks. By doing what you say and saying what you’ll do you create a clarity to your life and remove all the sneakiness. This leads to character.


2. Character - Character is when people see you have an uncompromising level of integrity, that you will not betray your word, your values or yourself for anything.You become reliable, dependable and trustworthy. It does not matter how you see yourself, if people cannot see the truth in you, then you do not have character. There will be no impact to your words. When people can see the truth in you, this leads to dignity.


3. Dignity - Having dignity is very precious. It is a currency you cannot buy. You earn it through your character. Dignity gives you a radiance, a glow. It also gives you a protection because the universe will always serve those who have dignity. Naturally therefore, dignity leads to Divinity.


4. Divinity - Divinity is being God-like. When people see you, they see God in you. You become a light, and light up humanity. Your presence alone is enough for people to feel safe and feel hope. People want to talk to you, even if you do not say a word to them. Your presence becomes attractive. When you speak, your words are remembered. That is Divinity, and it leads to grace.


5. Grace - Sometimes people are rude or reactive, they forget kindness and compassion. Grace is where each of your moment-to-moment experience and moment-to-moment actions are refined, calculated and elegant. You can sail through every situation of life, without needing to control anything. You wake with grace, eat with grace and walk with grace. You always reach to your angelic self and balance the heavens with the earth. Moderation is your way. Graceful people are grateful people. Grateful for the small things in life, like health, family and circumstances. Then being graceful, you learn to give and this leads to the power to sacrifice.


6. Power to sacrifice - When you can go beyond your own personal circumstances and situations to raise other people out of their misery, depression and unhappiness, then this is the power to sacrifice, which leads to happiness. By serving others, God serves you. It is a universal law, and no one can change it. By serving others, this brings within a person total fulfilment, where you are fully-filled with love. In fact, this is the stage where you have learnt so much, experienced so much and transformed so much that you cannot help but to share that with others. You are overflowing with love and light. This is happiness.


7. Happiness - Happiness runs in a circular motion, floating like a little boat upon the sea, everybody is a part of everything anyway, you can have everything if you let yourself be. Why oh because, why oh because…