Often people ask me how do you always remain so happy? How is it that there is always a smile on your face? Don't you ever get upset or angry? What is the secret behind this ever-positive vibration emanating from you? Well, the secret is to be self-satisfied.
The conditioning of human nature is such that we become filled with anxieties when we have expectations – because, in this world, we always don’t get what we expect. For instance, if we expect a promotion but we don't get it, it is disheartening, if we expect good weather but it is otherwise, it is very disturbing. If we expect respect from our husband, our wife, our friends, or the world, we are not always going to get it. The more we expect, the more we suffer when we don’t receive what we expect. And the more we get, the more we expect, and when we don’t receive, the more we suffer. This is human psychology.
This ignorance of self-realization is the greatest defeat in human life. The human form of life is especially meant for getting out of the bondage of fruitive activities, but as long as one is forgetful of his life’s mission and acts like an ordinary animal—eating, sleeping, mating and defending—he must continue his conditioned life of material existence. Such a life is an exhibition of forgetfulness of one’s real constitutional position.
A living being in his normal constitutional position is fully satisfied in spiritual bliss.This state of existence is called the state of self-satisfaction. This self-satisfaction is not like the satisfaction of the inactive person. The inactive person is in the state of foolish ignorance, whereas the self-satisfied ātmānandī is transcendental to the material state of existence. This stage of perfection is attained as soon as one is fixed in irrevocable devotional service. Devotional service is not inactivity, but the unalloyed activity of the soul.
The soul's activity becomes adulterated in contact with matter, and as such the diseased activities are expressed in the form of lust, desire, hankering, inactivity,foolishness and sleep. The effect of devotional service becomes manifest by complete elimination of these effects of passion and ignorance. The devotee is fixed at once in the mode of goodness, and he makes further progress to rise to the position of or the state of unmixed sattva, or śuddha-sattva. Only in this śuddha-sattva state can one always see the Lord eye to eye by dint of pure affection for the Lord.
Renunciation or detachment means to be self-satisfied – that is, we don’t need anything. When we are not self-satisfied, the soul tries to find satisfaction somewhere else. If we are not finding satisfaction in our love for God and our compassion for all living beings, we are going to expect it from somewhere else. And that is the cause of misery.
Remaining fixed in devotional service gives one the utmost in self-satisfaction. Actually self-satisfaction can be achieved only when we gradually train ourselves to have no desire other than to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Since the Supreme Personality of Godhead has nothing to desire, He is fully satisfied with Himself. Similarly, a devotee who has no desire other than to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead is as self-satisfied as the Supreme Lord.
There are different types of satisfaction. Karmīs are satisfied in their fruitive activities, jñānīs are satisfied if they merge into the effulgence of Brahman, and devotees are satisfied to engage in the Lord’s service. The Lord is self-satisfied because He is fully opulent, and one who is satisfied by serving Him is in eternal spiritual bliss. It is rightly explained in our Vedic texts that out of many thousands of persons, one may endeavor for liberation, and of many thousands of persons attempting to become liberated, one may achieve liberation from the anxieties of material existence and become self-satisfied. Even that satisfaction, however, is not the ultimate satisfaction. The jñānīs and the karmīs have desires, as do the yogīs, but devotees have no desires. Satisfaction in the service of the Lord is the highest perfectional stage where we achieve freedom from desire, and this is the ultimate satisfaction.
Everyone is hankering for peace of mind and self- satisfaction. These can only be achieved by doing our prescribed duties selflessly with a pure consciousness, with no expectations in return and most importantly, by becoming a pure devotee of the Lord.
Article by:
H.G. Mathura Vasi Devi Dasi
(Meghna Choudhury)
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