Swami Sankarananda speaks about the existence of two worlds:
1. External world - What we see, feel and deal with in daily life. The outside objects, people, ideas, and pursuits.
2. Internal World - Something people only feel and discover at times, when for example a loved one dies, then all of a sudden we realize we feel sad inside. Then we begin to question whether the external world was all that real to begin with. But as time rolls on, we forget and move on with our lives until another shock in the future stops us.
People are constantly running, we are always busy from morning to night. This run began ever since we learned to discriminate between what is good and what was better. Then we began to run after the better. But what is the goal? What do we really want? Is it a profession? A livelihood? That cannot be it, because we need the livelihood to live, not live to get the livelihood.
Actually we all want to enjoy, to be happy. But when we enter into the external world, so many things do not allow us to be happy. The hard realities of this world smack us in the face. They make it impossible for us to be always happy. We can have all the appliances in our house, lots of possessions, relationships, but still we feel sad inside. So we become frustrated. The things in the external world are transient, they cannot fulfill us. Maybe give joy only for a day or two..
The real source of happiness is in the inner world. And the subject of Vedanta is to discover it and master it. Happiness is internal. Vedanta, as well as all the spiritual and religious traditions in the world all say the same thing - the answer is within you. Stop searching outside and looking inside of you.
Swamiji shares a humorous story of a thief and a business man riding the night train together. At day time the thief spotted the business man carrying a thick wallet stuffed with money, and was very much looking forward to stealing it at night. The business man too was quite experienced in life and suspected the man to be a thief who will try to rob him.
The thief waited for the man to go to sleep at night and then started searching for the wallet but he could not find it anywhere. He was completed frustrated by the time morning came. The business man on the other hand slept very peacefully at night.
In the morning, the thief gave up and confessed himself. “I saw you had a thick wallet on you the day before, but I could not find it anywhere. Tell me where did you hide it?” The business man smiled and said, I put it under your pillow because I knew that’s the last place you would search for it.
So Swami Sankarananda says that we are like the thief, we search for happiness outside, like going for a holiday, shopping for a new shirt or pants, but we forget to look within our own self. Hence people do not find happiness, and carry on with misery.
This video was recorded from Swamiji's tour with Sri Sri Bhagavan in Barcelona, Spain in 2012.
Biography of Swami Sankarananda
1. External world - What we see, feel and deal with in daily life. The outside objects, people, ideas, and pursuits.
2. Internal World - Something people only feel and discover at times, when for example a loved one dies, then all of a sudden we realize we feel sad inside. Then we begin to question whether the external world was all that real to begin with. But as time rolls on, we forget and move on with our lives until another shock in the future stops us.
People are constantly running, we are always busy from morning to night. This run began ever since we learned to discriminate between what is good and what was better. Then we began to run after the better. But what is the goal? What do we really want? Is it a profession? A livelihood? That cannot be it, because we need the livelihood to live, not live to get the livelihood.
Actually we all want to enjoy, to be happy. But when we enter into the external world, so many things do not allow us to be happy. The hard realities of this world smack us in the face. They make it impossible for us to be always happy. We can have all the appliances in our house, lots of possessions, relationships, but still we feel sad inside. So we become frustrated. The things in the external world are transient, they cannot fulfill us. Maybe give joy only for a day or two..
The real source of happiness is in the inner world. And the subject of Vedanta is to discover it and master it. Happiness is internal. Vedanta, as well as all the spiritual and religious traditions in the world all say the same thing - the answer is within you. Stop searching outside and looking inside of you.
Swamiji shares a humorous story of a thief and a business man riding the night train together. At day time the thief spotted the business man carrying a thick wallet stuffed with money, and was very much looking forward to stealing it at night. The business man too was quite experienced in life and suspected the man to be a thief who will try to rob him.
The thief waited for the man to go to sleep at night and then started searching for the wallet but he could not find it anywhere. He was completed frustrated by the time morning came. The business man on the other hand slept very peacefully at night.
In the morning, the thief gave up and confessed himself. “I saw you had a thick wallet on you the day before, but I could not find it anywhere. Tell me where did you hide it?” The business man smiled and said, I put it under your pillow because I knew that’s the last place you would search for it.
So Swami Sankarananda says that we are like the thief, we search for happiness outside, like going for a holiday, shopping for a new shirt or pants, but we forget to look within our own self. Hence people do not find happiness, and carry on with misery.
This video was recorded from Swamiji's tour with Sri Sri Bhagavan in Barcelona, Spain in 2012.
Biography of Swami Sankarananda
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