Finding inner Joy is not a matter of a few hours a week. This must be your deepest desire, and it must fill your whole life. So said Brother Anandamoy in 1996, a monk from the Self-Realization Fellowship, the community created by Paramahansa Yogananda (author of Autobiography of a Yogi).
Here are some extracts from his speech. On many points, it is in line with what people who have experienced an NDE tell us.
What do you really want?
The only question is: what do you want? What do you want from your life? In truth, in depth? Take the time to think about it. You’ll see that it’s not that simple.
Most people stay on a superficial level: I want love, money, fame, power, to change the world, to change people, etc., etc., etc.
It’s believing that this world is the only one that exists, and that the only important thing is to live “well” in it. But this is a total illusion: we won’t die. Our destiny is eternal. If you waste your life pursuing goals that don’t really nourish you and make you grow in love and wisdom, you’re missing out on our life. You lose it, even though it’s infinitely precious.
Go deeper, seek the Source of life and joy.
Human beings want two things more than anything else:
- No pain. As Buddha said, the ultimate cause of our suffering is unfulfilled desire: I don’t want what I have and I suffer; I want what I don’t have and I suffer.
- Live forever and be happy all the time.
Spontaneously, you seek to achieve these goals by acting on external circumstances. But that’s impossible, because the world is always based on duality: nothing lasts forever, and we always have one then the other, or both. The world includes both birth and death, pleasure and suffering. The people you love leave you, get sick, die. The things or situations that make you happy change or disappear. Or worse, they’re still there and you’re no longer satisfied.
You can’t cut duality in half and take only the good things. This is not possible. So you won’t find lasting happiness in external circumstances.
The only way out is inside you
The only solution is to turn inward, because that’s where God is. That’s what all spiritualities say. All of them. The only way out is out of duality. Paramahansa Yogananda used to say that all prophets – of all times and religions – have invited humanity to overcome the illusion of the dual physical world and discover the absolute unity of God, the One.
Only in God can you find eternal happiness. Because it is life, love and joy, and has no opposites.
Spirituality is joy
When you discover your soul, you discover its unity with God. And then you discover that Joy has always been within you. She’s waiting for you. Patiently.
By identifying with the body, you turn your energy outwards and it’s wasted on things that won’t last. Turn inward, free yourself from this identification with the body. Know that you are a soul, a spiritual and eternal being. In this way, you will realize that you are a part of God, totally One with Him.
You’ll also discover that God is the Source of Joy, a permanent Joy independent of circumstances.
However, this is not an invitation to neglect your outside duties. Life on earth is a school, and the spiritual path is also about taking care of yourself and others, in all your dimensions: physical, psychological and spiritual.
Don’t waste your life. Please.
Elizabeth Kübler-Ross said: “There are worse things than the fear of death, because death can be tamed, especially if our end of life is spent in love. But the worst thing is to die saying to ourselves: ‘I haven’t really lived, I’ve wasted my life’.
The worst thing is to realize, at the end of your life, that you’ve missed the point. The worst thing is to realize, when it’s too late, that all your agitation, all your achievements, even the most important ones, are just straw that burns up in an instant.
Your greatest mission: to find inner joy
The worst part is knowing that you’ve neglected your spiritual dimension, which was essential. Your greatest mission is to find God within yourself. It’s to fully experience that you are a part of God. Discover that your soul is a ray of eternal Light. Your soul is unalterable and will live forever in eternal happiness. It’s the only thing you need. Happiness is about freeing your soul and letting it shine.
Seek peace
Yoga teaches you to calm down and turn inward to see the Light of your soul, that is, of God. Your true nature is Love, Peace and Joy. It requires you to calm down and turn away from the worries and pleasures of the world.
Know that it can’t give you true happiness and can’t make your soul suffer. You’re not the packaging, you’re the diamond inside. The body is a shell. Life and joy are inside, in the soul.
People who have had a NDE have experienced this. They know that their body is not their consciousness, and that the soul lives on after the body’s death. They are transformed forever.
To view the entire conference (subtitles available): https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=axJ9zXVdiEM&t=269s
On the same theme, you can also read the article There’s only one joy, and it’s THE joy.
