Short-term Happiness or Long-term Bliss?

We as human beings are programmed from birth to always go for the short-term happiness. Short-term happiness is anything which we do or look for which is outside of ourselves. This can include drinking alcohol, taking drugs, making friendships and relationships with people, listening to music, going shopping, earning money or having sex. Actually, everything that we can see, hear, smell, touch and taste can be included in this list. So, then two questions arise:

1. Does this mean that all these things are wrong to do?
2. How can we go beyond short-term happiness and attain long-term bliss?

So firstly, no, all of the above is neither wrong nor right. We are not talking about morality here, we’re talking about reality. These worldly things will only bring you either closer to your destiny or further away, depending on your state of mind. That’s all it is a question of, a state of mind. If you can learn to live in the world and not be attached to it, and you can learn to make your mind your slave so that lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego does not get in the way of you achieving your destiny, then you are living as a liberated human being.

But this is easier said than done because everything you have been taught is false. You’ve only been taught to fill your mind with junk, and to relate to your ego and emotions as if they are the real you. You’ve also been taught that everything your senses tell you is real. None of these are true. You must understand that the mind is very clever, it plays a lot of games with you, which you’re not aware of. But you should feel hopeful, because the mind can be reprogrammed and controlled. All that is required is consciousness, and by nature, you are consciousness. That’s all you really are. So you have everything you need in your backpack of life to set off on this journey to find reality and to control the mind.

It is through the control of the mind that we can attain long-term bliss. Bliss isn’t like anything you’ve every felt. You may have felt snippets of it when falling in love with someone, or if you’re a mother, the love for your child. But these experiences are just snippets. The real wealth, the real happiness, the real joy is in the stillness of your mind. When you become fully present to life and reality, no longer does the mind go back and forth between the past and the future. It is still. It is calm. It is centered. In that space, through a constant consciousness, the mind turns from a monkey mind, into a Divine mind. The Divine mind is useful because it is one-pointed and will not play games with you. Instead, it will aid you like a good companion and servant, to achieve whatever you want.

In order to achieve long-term bliss and to create a Divine mind, a person must meditate consciously. Meditation is the process of stilling the mind. I always hear people say “I can’t meditate because there’s too many thoughts!”. Well, that’s the whole point of meditation: to clear them out! Just like taking a shower you clear your physical body, you meditate to clear your mental body. And it is a process that you have to be patient with. Practice makes you realise you’re already perfect, but there will be ups and downs. You must gracefully ride through these. Meditating is the greatest challenge and the greatest journey a human being can undertake, because it means you have to take responsibility for every part of yourself. Every single part. In the ancient script of Gurmukhi this phrase is called ‘Ang Sung Waheguru’. It means that every part of you is coordinated towards a single purpose of higher consciousness.

So please, it is my prayer that you give yourself the gift of meditation and incorporate it into your everyday life, into your everyday smile and your everyday step, so that through a Divine mind you can be healthy, happy and holy in every facet of your life.