by Sri Bmal Mohanty
VOL No. 8
 February 2001

CHAPTER NINE – WHY WE SEEK HAPPINESS ? ..

"Based on lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

continued...

     One of the concepts to which the Vedantic philosophy subscribes, is the belief of rebirth - punarjanma. The concept of punarjanma argues that the present birth of ours is not the first and may not be the last. We have come after completing many such births from the original state from where we started. Experience gained in every birth gets imprinted in our subconscious memory and stays. It comes back to us as natural instinct when needed. That is why a baby instinctively sucks the mother’s breast without being taught. The newly born chicks scurry under the mother’s wings the moment they sense danger of death hovering above in the form of a kite. The infant turtles after breaking out of the egg shells instantly rush nowhere but to the brightness of the ocean without being taught. This is because, they have done this before. They have tasted the milk before, they have knowledge of death and the protection of mother’s wings, they know the safety the water of the ocean provides.

So, when we instinctively in our hearts long for peace and happiness, it is because we have knowledge of that peace and happiness from our past and, having found it greatly exhilarating and pleasurable keep on searching for it all our lives.

Where did we taste this happiness?

Vedantic philosophy also provides the answer. We all are not only born out of that eternal supreme source - the Parambramha - whose essential quality is Satchidananda - permanent bliss and happiness, but are also the very same being in different forms. Therefore we have a direct knowledge and experience of that supreme bliss and happiness which is etched in our subconscious memory. The phenomenal world with its distractions may have put obstacles on our path to reach back to that stage of happiness, yet the memory of it keeps on goading us and we move like a moth in search of that flame.

The fact that all of us, without exception, originate from the Lord (The Parambramha) who is the source of permanent happiness, our conscious mind or body level chetana may doubt, but our subconscious mind or the embedded chetana of higher mind never forgets.


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