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Everyone Wants To Be Happy

A spiritual discourse on translation, the human condition, and the path to happiness through the five sheaths (kośas).

"Translation requires śabdārtha, bhāvārtha, or jñānārtha."

"All living beings... want to have two things: śukh kī prāpti aur duḥkh kī nivṛtti (the attainment of happiness and the removal of sorrow)."

Swami Avatarpuri expands on a previous talk about language, explaining the three levels of meaning in translation. He then explores the universal human pursuit of happiness (sukha) and avoidance of sorrow (duhkha), framing this quest through the lens of the five kośas. He offers practical advice for balancing each sheath—from physical exercises for the prāṇamaya kośa to mantra and prayer for the manomaya and vijñānamaya kośas—culminating in the realization of inherent bliss (ānandamaya kośa). The talk includes references to teachings from Swami Madhavānandjī Mahārāj, a bhajan from Kabir, and concludes with a mantra.

Yesterday we spoke about language and translations. Bhavārtha, śabdārtha, jñānārtha—these are the three levels of translation. A person who translates without knowing the word, who does not know what a kośa is, might write "kośa meat." That is not correct. Therefore, we have to be very precise in translating anything through our Vijñānamaya Kośa. Translation requires śabdārtha, bhāvārtha, or jñānārtha. Śabdārtha means word-for-word translation. Bhāvārtha is essential; without bhāvārtha you cannot translate. You have to explain, and that is bhāvārtha. And jñānārtha requires your vijñānamaya kośa, your knowledge, to bring the meaning into a position that is acceptable, perfect, and complete. Similarly, between Chetan (the Conscious Self) and Paramachetan (the Supreme, the Cosmic Self), and Jada (this matter), there exists what is called Icchā Śakti. Icchā means willpower. Ichchā means desires. This Ichchā Śakti belongs to the Ānandamaya Kośa. Our Satguru Dev, Swami Madhavānandjī Mahārāj, often said that every creature has two wishes, and this is called sukha kī prāpti or duḥkha kī nivṛtti. Everyone—not just humans, but birds, animals, fish, jelcher, thulcher, nubcher (these three kinds of creatures), the 8.4 million different kinds of creatures, which are billions and many, many other creations—are more numerous than humans, except for monkeys and tigers, and they killed elephants and so on. If you see the termites, they have a larger population than humans. If you see the ants, they have a larger population than humans. So don't think that we are everything as humans. Even a small mosquito. So, sukha kī prāpti—day and night, every creature is running behind or striving to achieve, to realize, to get, or to be happy. No one wishes to be unhappy. Sukha. Śukha—there is no translation in the English language. Maybe in other languages, but exactly when we say śukha, there is no translation. "Happy"—we have other words for this: khushi, prashan. So, sukha is that—still not that exactly, what I will tell. I am only using my bhāvārtha because there is no śabdārtha for sukha. Bhavārtha, jñānārtha—on this I can only explain to you what it could be: a comfortable life, a happy life, without problems, without difficulties, without illness, everywhere very good situations. Now, this we put in one word, called sukha. Dukkha is the opposite. How are you? If we ask, "How are you, brother? How are you, sister? How are you?" Arre Mahārāj, kyā kare, hum bade dukhī hain? Gurudev, what can we tell? We are very dukhī. Now, in which kind of trouble are you? So when you tell, "I am very dukhī," there is a completeness in that, a state of being troubled, complete troubles. Or, "I am very happy. I am very happy. I am comfortable. Everything." So, Sukha and Dukha. Therefore, this Sukha and Dukha is the subject of all five kośas. Sukha and Dukha is the subject of this Jīvātmā. Who is searching for this? That Jīvātmā. When it has gone out, when the soul is gone out of the body, then the body neither desires for sukha nor for duḥkha. The body becomes like what we call matter, like a stone. You can break it, cut it, burn it, bury it, throw it, pull it, tear it. When you die, you don't know who will take you one year away, who will take you this year. One says, "I want to have his nose or her nose," and someone will say, "I want to have this." Someone says, "I will take the tooth." Everything will be taken. But you don't feel anything. You are gone. So, the Jīvātmā. And when the Jīvātmā comes from the astral world to this physical world, then you may call God, you may call Mother Nature, you may call the Creator. This is also not sure. It gives everything, like a small child of ten years, twelve years, going for a picnic with friends. Then, father or mother, they give everything: water, something to eat, something to drink, some pocket money, this, that, warm salt, this. Mother or your father is taking care of you, so that nothing is missing, everything. Similarly, when the Jīvātmā enters this physical world, in this physical body, then whatever you call Mother Nature, or the Creator, or God, anything—for us, for humans, it takes nine months to prepare to give everything in your rūkṣak (provision bag). Perfectly checked three times, more times. You know, we are today, again, 10 minutes, 15 minutes late for webcasting because there was a sound disturbing the sound. And the same system we have in the ears. If you are born so that you can't hear through one ear, then there was a mistake already. Or you hear a sound all the time since your birth. There was a mistake; it was not tuned properly, not checked. It has to be checked, and then they put one seal. Okay, it's checked. Similarly, Mother Nature, or God, or the cosmic architect, engineer, whatever, who prepared this soul to come on this Mṛti-loka, perfectly packed everything with the five beautiful, good layers: Annamaya Kośa, Prāṇamaya Kośa, Manomaya Kośa, Vijñānamaya Kośa, and Ānandamaya Kośa. Every Kośa has its own meaning and is very, very important. If the Vijñānamaya Kośa is missing, then you will be what we call mentally retired, with no knowledge. One is old 50 years, but the psychology says he is like a 5-year-old boy, or maybe a 3-year-old boy. That's it. So, thanks to God, thanks to Mother Nature, you see, that gave everything perfectly. Every kośa is very important. In this, when the jīvātmā begins to travel to this world, what first is it searching for? Śukha. Śukha kī prāpti. How to get happiness, comfort, safety. And how to get rid of those troubles from the past lives, what we call the destiny, the karmas, or the problems from this past time in this life, physical pain. Suppose you have a problem with your knee. Others don't see, but you have pain, and you go to the doctor and you ask, "How to get rid of the pain? Which medicine should I take?" Constantly, we are trying to solve that problem. So, physical problems, troubles, pain—we can try to release them through medicine or operations, or through yoga exercises, some gymnastics, some therapeutic movements, which yoga and daily life have, perfect. The first and second chapters are a perfect therapy for everything, for those who have problems, and for those who don't have problems, to get rid of them. That's it. But second comes the energy problem, the prāṇamaya kośa. We have bodies, health, everything, but energy is missing. You go to the doctor, you make a diagnosis of blood pressure and everything. All the minerals in the body are okay. All the vitamins are okay. All tissues are okay, but you are tired and tired. All you want to do is sleep, you can't get up. And when you get up, you are tired. There are some people who feel they don't have energy at all. They are because the immunity system is missing. Some exercise is missing. Prana—your body cannot preserve the prāṇa. You are in the prāṇa, the level of the prāṇa, but it doesn't charge, like a battery is discharged and has no capacity to recharge. For that, we have one very nice āsana in our Yogananda life, Khāṭu Praṇām. Eleven rounds in the morning, eleven rounds before lunch, and eleven rounds before dinner in the evening. In seven days, you will have so much energy that you will feel, "Oh, I am now alive." I have energy, so pranayama and exercises. Besides this, if you want to have more precision, then concentrate on the chakras. Read in the Hidden Powers in Human book about the chakras. There you will see which chakra, which kind of energy supplies or takes energy away. Okay, for prāṇamaya kośa, we can do some kind of exercises, we can try to change the diet, what the Āyurveda people say, that vāta, pitta, kapha, so diet is also very important. Then comes Manomaya Kośa, the mental sheath. And mental problems are connected very directly also to the Ānandamaya Kośa. There is some key to be turned, this side or that side. When you go away, you turn your key to this side to lock your door. And when you come back to open the door, you lock it like this. Where is that key? For our manomaya kośa, for the mental problems or this? Why? You are unhappy because your car is broken. There is another person who is repairing the car. He is very happy. So you see, how is the subject? Whose car is broken is unhappy, but who is repairing is happy. So, which side? This all is the matter in our manomaya kośa. And therefore, only Gurujī said in a beautiful bhajan: "Deep niranjan śabdukha bhanjan. Ishi mantra se hove manmanjan." Through mantras, through prayers, you can purify all the worries, the mental worries. Whenever you feel scared, pray. We know that we have good friends, we have good parents, we have good children, and we have good colleagues. But finally, it is God. Final is God, and God loves you much more than your parents and your good friends. Anyone can leave you. Anyone can disappoint you. But the one who will not disappoint is God, who is omniscient and omnipresent. Every incarnation of God is good. Don't say, "My God is good, their God is not good." And this is a power fight, a political fight. Don't take it in that way. Don't give the judgment, "Only this is the form of God, and others are not." Then it means you didn't understand what God is. Deep nirañjan śabda bhañjan, isī mantra se hoye mana mañjan. This is the perfect mantra. Your mind will be purified. Jab jab mana ghabrāye, tum prathānā karo. Whenever your mind, or you, are scared, mentally fearful, and you know, fear is sometimes so big, what we call, like a phobia, when someone... Have phobia, then it's so much fear, anxiety, that even they don't want to open the curtain, they don't want to open the door and come in the street. Though there is no danger, there's nothing, but fear is sitting inside. That's a manomaya kośa. When you don't see any way out from these troubles, there is one way, and that is a praṭhanā, the prayers. Prayer is like that you have given all in the hands of God. There is a beautiful bhajan: Har tumare haato ab samp diya is jeevan hai jeet tumare haato, or har tumare haato hai when we don't see. Any way out when we are scared, and we feel that we have no more power to do anything. Finally, that time every human will surrender to God. Some may believe in the saguṇa form of God, meaning in the physical form, and some will believe in nirguṇa. Even those who people call them, what they call the atheist. Atheists do not believe in God in the way that many people make worships and this and that. But they do believe in love. They are very good people, very humble people, very supportive people. So, who are we to judge? Oh, this is a non-believer. What do you mean that he or she is a non-believer? If one will not believe, one cannot live at all. One believes that one is hungry and will go to the restaurant or the kitchen or to the mother. At least this you believe. Now you are sleeping and you have to get up and go to the bathroom. Why do you get up? Do you believe? You believe that the bathroom is there, where to go. If you can't believe, you cannot stand up. The willpower is broken. So belief is there, but not in that way as you believe. And who are we to force someone to believe what we believe? Therefore, everyone should have the freedom in their belief. How do they believe? Finally, there is only one God, and that is the Nirguṇa, the universal one, which has no form and nothing. But there are those who guide us, who lead us, who explain to us, who inspire us. So finally, at the end of this, when some trouble comes, then we turn to God. God, help, please. Surrender. We are surrendering. We say, "God will help us." Ab saup diya is jeevan me, ab saup diya is jeevan ka. Hai jeet tumhare haathon, aur haar tumhare haathon. Hai jeet tumhare, aur haar tumhare haathon mein. So, the manomaya kośa, the mental body, the mental mind, the situation. So, anxiety, the feeling of being scared, how do we explain it? Sometimes a doctor will give you only some kind of tranquilizer. Where is that located? It is a karmic, but still on the level of the manomaya kośa. Manomaya kośa is out of power, out of the abilities that cannot control, because the vijñānamaya kośa is very weak. Vijñānamaya kośa means that knowledge, the wisdom. Don't worry. You see, anyone can take away from our hands, but no one can take away what we have in our destiny, our śikṣā, our kismat, our bhāgya. So destiny, that no one can touch, no one can manipulate, no one can take away. And that's very important to know. So vijñānamaya kośa, our intellect, positive intellect. Negative intellect creates a fear within oneself. And out of fear, you are angry. Out of fear, you are jealous. Out of fear, you are greedy. Out of fear, you are arrogant. And out of fear, you show your ego, your force, your power. So negative intellect leads to distraction, distraction of the Annamaya Kośa, Prāṇamaya Kośa, Manomaya Kośa, and Ānandamaya Kośa, because the Vijñānamaya Kośa is not perfectly purified and clean. Positive intellect is crystal clear, transparent, and understanding. Everything you understand. You understand, you take it, you purify, you digest, or you clear it up. Nothing will make you angry. When you are angry, that is your weakness, and that shows that your Vijñānamaya Kośa still has those waves which are not cleared up or not calmed down. We are happy with those whom we like, and we are angry with those whom we don't like. We are attached; we have moha, this attachment. So where we have our moha, we are happy, and where something happens to that which we have our moha, our attachment, we are angry. So, Vijñānamaya Kośa has to be constantly purified, and that is through mantra practice. Niranjana Sabha Doka Bhajan Prabhu Deepa Niranjana Sabha Doka Isi Mantrasi Hove Mana Manjana Isi Hove Mana Manjana Sri Deepa Niranjana Sabha Doka Bhajan. When the Vijñānamaya Kośa is perfectly crystal clear, positive, when the positive is, then it's okay. It's like a sky. You cannot destroy the sky. You cannot burn the sky. You cannot make a hole in the sky. Jo ho rahā hai hone do. What's happening, let it happen. What happened has happened. And what will happen, will happen. When you're born, you brought nothing. Whatever you got is not yours. You got it. What you have today, you are saying it's mine. And tomorrow you will lose it. But you have lost nothing because it was not yours. So, temporarily we have the relation: my mother and my father, my sister, my brother, my child. And there is a period of time, that's all, that's your relation. And then it's gone. The moha will pull you like a good pizza with a lot of cheese. You take the slice of the pizza and you see that it's pulling with and with, but becomes thinner and thinner, and moha is gone, cut it off. It is said, "Jagat me phūlā phūlā phire, kaisā agyānī re." So, our attachment, our fear, our pain, our crying, our sadness have a limitation; the limitation is gone. So, those who are disturbing their vijñānamaya kośa, creating anger, if something, because you don't like that, who are you that you don't like that? It's your Jīva. Jīvātmā is free from this. Jīvātmā has other worries, not to come again to this Chaurāsī Lākh cycle of the rebirth and death of different creatures' forms. Concentrate, sorry, concentrate on that. Hirde kamal kī āṅkh khul jāve. Hirde is the heart, Kamal is a lotus. So this Anāhata Chakra, the eye of the Anāhata Chakra will awaken. Yesterday we spoke when the Vijñānamaya Kośa, if the wisdom is there, then you can write good poems, good bhajans, and this, otherwise you can't. So hṛde kamal kī āṅkh khul jāve. There is a third eye here, the ājñā cakra, but another one is called the hṛdaya, the heart. We have to come here. Mostly, we are stuck here and going out. We have to come here to go in. If anyone will put the ointment of the name of God in that eye, in the heart, repeat your mantra. Which mantra? We practice, we pray, but we do not overcome our selfishness. We didn't come out of anger. We don't understand others' pain. We are so selfish. When we don't like something, we immediately blame. That is a very clear sign that your Vijñānamaya Kośa is polluted. Your Vijñānamaya Kośa has a thick layer of fog. Malvikṣepa and āvaraṇa, these three qualities in vijñānamaya kośa also, not only in annamaya kośa, not only the mental pollution, but that mental pollution causes to the vijñānamaya kośa. Therefore, sabhī prāṇī sukh kī khoj mein hain aur duḥkha kī nivṛtti mein hain. Holy Gurujī, our beloved Sadgurudev, Swāmī Madhavānandajī said, Pranī mātra do cīz cāhte ha͠i. All living beings need to, they want to have two things: śukh kī prāpti aur duḥkh kī nivṛtti. That śukh, the happiness, whatever, there is no translation of the word as śukh. But you see how many people come to Pokhara now, tourists. For what are they coming? Not that they have too much money, so they just get rid of it here. No. To find some happiness. And then they are not happy with the taxi, then they are not happy with the hotel, and they are not happy with the eating, then they are not happy with the shopping, and then again go complaining, complaining. Therefore, Kabīr Rājī said, "When I was born, I was crying, and people were laughing, happy. Because I don't know which karma brought me again to this life. Oh God, again. Oh God, again." Again, there in the same, when I was born, all family members were happy. "Oh, we got one child," and all the times when you got a son, my God, everybody is more happy. When a daughter is born, they said, "Oh, congratulations, all the best, we wish you well." And when the son is born, oh, really, you see how we make duality. This is our problem. In knowledge, in reality, there are no gender dualities. Daughters, yes, we say Lakṣmī, the goddess. Son, Nārāyaṇa, good. This is how the way of thinking begins to make the difference. So when Kabīr Dās was born, he said, all was happy, but he was crying, "Oh God, again I am in this saṃsāra." Aisi karnī karchalo. Kabīr Dās said, "Now do such karma, now do such good things." Ham hase jagaro. I am happy, smiling that I finished my life happily. And people, I am laughing, but people will cry. Why? Because they will say, "How good a person was he? How good was that person?" This person was never angry, never blaming, never complaining, never up and down emotionally, balanced, good, kind. That's it, that's the sense of life: śukh kī prāpti. So if you want to have that śukh, happiness, joy, change inside. Understand: śukh kī prāpti, duḥkh kī nivṛtti. And to remove all the troubles, for that we pray, we practice, we do good things, be kind to others, be kind to... Others, always we say, "Control your tongue." You know what they call the chugal for the horse? Put on your tongue like a horse. What we call in German, chugal. What's in English? What is in the horse's mouth when we are riding? A bridle. Yes. Those who have no control over the tongue, why not control? Because the vijñānamaya kośa is in disturbances. Sorry for them. Some are disturbed by disappointments, some are disturbed by animal bites, tick bites, or anything, mental disturbances, become crazy, don't see anything positive, only negative, negative... Like a dog who has a rabbit illness, or a fox which has a rabbit's illness. Only see where to bite, where to bite, because jāṭharāgni inside is burning, burning. Bite, bite,... bite. And when the negative vijñānamaya kośa is active, then only work does destructive work. And when balanced, then the ānandamaya kośa, happy, happy, happy. Ānandoham, ānandoham. Ānandoham Ānandoham Ānandam Brahmanandam I am bliss, I am bliss,... bliss am I, I am bliss, I am bliss,... bliss am I. Yāmaṁ rādhos, yāmaṁ rādhos, yāmaṁ rādhos, yāmaṁ rādhos, yāmaṁ rādhos, rādhos, Om Satchidānanda, Om Satchidānanda. Deep Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Dev Purīśa Mahādev Satguru Svāmī Madhavān Jī Bhagavān Satya Sanātana Nāham Karatā Prabhu Dīpa Karatā Mahāprabhu Kartā Hī Ke Om Śānti Śānti... Hari Om, Deep Narayan Bhagwan Ki.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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