The Human Quest

Hari Om,

Swami Sivananda does not preach from a podium. He comes down to the level of the common man and asks him what he wants. Bang comes the reply: “Happiness!”. Happiness is what everyone is after. From cradle to grave, it is the one ceaseless human quest. The new-born baby seeks comfort in its mother’s bosom. The dying man seeks solace in a last look at his close relatives crowding round his cot. During their earthly sojourn, different people look for happiness in different places, but their goal is common.

Some call it happiness. Others call it peace. Sivananda sees everyone striving for it, each in his own way, but not getting it. Happiness, the most sought-after goal of all human endeavours, is also the most elusive. Worldly happiness is like the will-o’-the wisp. Just as one seems to secure it, it eludes one’s grasp. Even when secured, it does not last. It is fleeting. It is momentary. Not only that, it is invariably mixed with pain. Lasting happiness thus becomes a never-ending chase.

Why is this so? Sivananda says that it is because man searches for happiness in the wrong place. To illustrate his point, the Master tells a story:

“A simpleton was passing through a dark tunnel. A coin he was holding in his hand slipped down on the ground. He came out of the tunnel and started vigorously searching for it all over the place just outside the tunnel. People got curious. They questioned him. He said, ‘I have lost my money. I am not able to find it, though I have been searching for it all day’. ‘Where did you lose it?’ asked a bystander. ‘Inside that tunnel’ came a reply. ‘And why are you searching for it here?’ asked the amazed friend.‘Because it is dark inside the tunnel and bright here!’”

“Who will not laugh at such foolishness?” asks Sivananda, “And yet, such truly is the case with numberless men and women today. They all want peace. They realise that they have lost it. They are frantically searching for it. But where? Where they are able to see. Not where it is, where they lost it!”.

Peace lies in God. Happiness lies in God, from whom man has descended. When man separated from God, he lost his happiness. He can regain that happiness only when he returns to God. “Happiness comes when the individual merges in God,” says holy Master Sivananda in his last sentence, dictated just three weeks before his Mahasamadhi. Once man is merged in God, there is no coming back to this world of woes.

Source : Sri N.Ananthanarayanan's book 'What does Swami Sivananda Teach'

Om Namoh Bhagavathe Sivanandaya !

Om Namoh Bhagavathe Chidanandaya !