Swaminarayan Teachings

[suchetamuni]

I would like to dedicate this thread to Swaminarayan religion Swamini Vato
These are written about 200 years back but still applicable to todays world.
Each thread I will post one teaching.

[suchetamuni]

Happiness
When unhappy, look towards those who are in greater misery rather than those happier than you. This is a key to happiness on earth.
Three kinds of people are happy: Those who act in total obedience to the great sadhu; those with knowledge divine who are not ruled by the capricious mind; and those who crave for nothing at all.
Why can't we experience the happiness of God? It's because we are confined by the pleasures of the senses.
Everyone's happiness rests on some basis or the other, but be sure to base your happiness on the soul and God; shun all other bases.
The calf relishes the milk of the cow; the bug, blood. Likewise, the pleasures of the palate and the happiness from vain glory are like 'blood' and devotion rendered to God after identifying one's spirit with Brahman is like 'milk'.
Happiness lies in: remembering God, the company of His saints, purity of thought and in accepting that all the pleasures of this world are replete with pains. No one truly great has ever declared happiness to be in the sense-objects. And the eternally happy state is in realizing oneself as atman. It is unique in itself; no evil forces of lust and the like can exist therein.