“Since we seek pleasure all the time, we have to understand this in a little more depth to be able to live a good life. Pleasure arises when the senses come in contact with objects, situations and people.  There are millions of things outside that don’t give pleasure or pain by themselves.  So contact is the significant thing. Three kinds of problems arise in seeking pleasure: The pain of acquisition, the pain of holding on, and the pain of losing that thing. I will expand on each of these three below…

There are three kinds of problems that arise. First is the pain of acquisition. Say a car to a man..A job, medical insurance, we can go on… So acquiring something involves some pain. It doesn’t come free, as you know. A person hunting for a job for six months or a person on look out for a partner – visualise what they went through.

The next is the process of holding on to something that has been acquired. This is inevitable.  After you buy a car, you start thinking of how to pay the monthly payments. Or a home – even more dicy because of the amounts involved.  Suddenly you forget that you only wanted it. Or trying to hold on to a partner with riving eyes or bad habits. You begin to wish you never met him or her.

The next is the departure of that thing or person..It can be your parents, your love, your child, your car, your home etc.  Any departure gives great pain.  You feel an emptiness that is indescribable. We did not understand this when we acquired these things.

So this is life. And this is why we say happiness has this other side. So can you change the nature of this design. No, that is not possible. It’s part of the great design. So what do we do?  Bear it and keep morose and keep crying with a few laughters to balance it?

There are two issues which have only to do with ourselves.  First, to build up the strength before you acquire anything.  Second, to learn to convert loneliness into aloneness and being content within oneself.  If both of these happen, then you can navigate the world and it seems like a paradise of opposites playing their games.  There must be mental preparedness both in having and not having anything.  The world cannot give permanent happiness or security.  This is the reality – all is subject to change.

I sincerely believe that the knowledge of Atman as your real Self will give you all that you need to enjoy life. This is life. This is heaven, here and now.  Not after death or in an unknowable place.”