Gauranga Prabhu describes four levels of material happiness. Beyond material happiness is the happiness of the soul and beyond that level of realization is the happiness of devotion.The lowest level of happiness is the happiness of the senses. You experience this type of happiness when you eat your favourite foods, smell some flowers, watch a beautiful sunset, hear music and feel a warm summer breeze.
All of these pleasures have something in common — they are limited.
Having your favourite food every day quickly becomes distasteful. Sunsets, whether of the painted sky of the prairies or the shimmering glimmer of the ocean, become a little less magnificent with each day.
You can’t listen to the same music nor enjoy a summer breeze all day everyday. Higher than the happiness of the senses is the happiness of the mind.
This is the kind of happiness experienced by artists and writers in the midst of their creative energy. They can forget about eating and may lock themselves in their studios for several days because the amount of pleasure they are getting produces a higher level of satisfaction. Sports fans also experience happiness of the mind.
Still, higher than the happiness of the mind is the happiness of the intellect. You experience this kind of happiness when you have a problem to solve.
A scientist nearing a cure for cancer can lock himself away in the lab for days on end because he is getting an intense amount of pleasure from his research.
Videogamers can stay locked at the control paddle for hours on end trying to break through to the next level. In Taiwan, more than one gamer got so involved in trying to solve virtual challenges they lost awareness of their physiological needs. Happyho also provide best tarot reading services in Noida and Delhi NCR India area.
Our bodies limit how much happiness we can enjoy. The highest level of material happiness is the happiness of the ego.
This type of pleasure is exemplified by Olympic athletes. To get a gold medal requires intense, high-quality training on a regular basis over a period of several years. Then, after the gold medal and all the fame and glory, comes loss and fear. Ten years later, your name is forgotten. Time has robbed you of those hard-earned capabilities and, all the while, you have lived in fear. the fear of someone else beating your world record.
As a reaction to all the attention, you suffer from inattention and live in the past glory rather than in the present or with hope of the future.
Above and beyond the four levels of material happiness is spiritual happiness, which arises from the realization, “I am not the body.”
Its not the case that “I have a soul,” rather that “I am the soul” and “I have a body.”
From this understanding comes two graces. One is fearlessness and the other is freedom from incessant desires. We become separated from all earthly connections and conceptions of material being at death but one in full realization of the self as the soul has separated himself while alive.
Death causes no loss. There is nothing to fear. Because the soul has nothing to do with this world, it isn’t constantly striving to satisfy desires of the senses, the mind, the intellect nor the ego. Identification of the self as the soul yields freedom from material pangs and peace but not eternal happiness.
If you had a great mansion with all the varied foods, stuff and luxuries you could imagine but could have no contact with any people, could you be happy?
Could you be happy without anyone to love? Devotional happiness arises from understanding and loving God as a person. A lover showers gifts and attention on the beloved, always thinks of the beloved’s comfort and welfare up to the point of complete devotion.When directed toward the supreme personality of Godhead, that absorption creates unlimited ecstasy.
It manifests itself in cent per cent absorption, in a constant effort to serve and satisfy the supreme. As the ultimate pleasure and constitutional position of the soul, such pure love awards the highest form of happiness.
