Happiness

Level 1 Happiness: Artificial happiness
Level 1 happiness is where happiness doesn’t even exist. If someone succeeds in not paying for a bus ticket, but yet gets to make the journey, then he or she feels extremely happy. It is pointless. Though at that moment, it appears to be very pleasurable. Just pondering over it would make it clear that there is nothing to be happy about. It is like a mirage.
Level 2 Happiness: Second-hand happiness
There is a market for second-hand cars where you buy someone else’s used car. However, second-hand vehicles or objects usually don’t last for long. Similarly second-hand happiness is derived by using others. By being sadistic. By teasing or taunting or harming others.
Level 3 Happiness: Stimulation Happiness
Stimulation happiness refers to the happiness gained due to excitement aroused by parties, loud music, etc. You watch TV and get excited about a program. This is stimulation happiness. The happiness derived out of watching a nerve wrecking cricket match is another example of stimulation happiness. The whole society is a prey to this kind of happiness. Happiness that is dependent on parties and picnics and celebrations. But the stimulation does not last for long. Two or three days after the excitement of the party or a match is over, you feel now even more bored. Now a higher level of excitement is required next time. Then one may turn into gambling or addiction or some thing else.
Level 4 Happiness: Formula Happiness
Many people have created formulae for happiness. If everything goes well as per their formula, they are very happy. For many, the formula is “Sunday Morning Newspaper + A Cigarette + A morning drink”. For some, the formula is “Saturday night party + a new date every time”. For children, the formula could be “a whole day of play + a movie to end the day”. For ladies, it could be “Gift + Gold = Happiness”.
Level 5 happiness: Happiness in Service
This is the first amongst the higher levels of happiness. Where an individual derives happiness out of serving others. The law of nature that “whatever you become a medium for, will multiply in your life” starts paying rich dividends on this level. So, the more one serves, the more happy one becomes. The more nature rewards, one really begins to enjoy this virtuous cycle. Many a time, this also leads to bloated egos and expectations from others. It doesn’t take long therefore to fall to depths of unhappiness from the heights of happiness derived at this level.
Level 6 happiness: Divine Happiness
At this level, man is in love with the creator. He sings the praise of God and admires everything created by God. Everything that happens in his life is fully acceptable to him. He says, “If God desires to keep me in this state…then I am happy as I am”. He believes, “ If this is what God desires, then I have no objection to it. If God is making me cry, then I shall cry with happiness..”. It is a very state born out of surrendering. There is a level of understanding and spiritual growth out of which this happiness emanates. One is always in a feeling of gratitude and devotion at this level.
Level 7 Happiness: Eternal Bliss
Each one of us bears the eternal bliss within, but we are not aware of the same. When you are in deep sleep and neither the mind is awake nor dreaming, nor are you aware of the body, then you are in connection with that eternal state. Every child, before the mind fully develops, is established in the same state of eternal bliss. As soon as the child’s mind develops, others condition the child that he is an individual, a body. Identification with the body is complete. Then begins unhappiness. Now the child has grown up. The individual understands that happiness can be derived only from lower levels.
If self realization occurs through the grace of Guru or God, then it means that now there is access to the eternal bliss state. This is permanent happiness which does not diminish with every passing hour. Actually, the more you access it, the more the happiness grows. Regain the eternal bliss found among children. Become child like. Not childish. For this transformation to occur, you have to learn to open up and blossom.