Good morning.
This is the holiday season. Is it supposed
to be a happy occasion?
The topic is happiness.
When do we feel happy? Help me out
here. (Asking for responses from the audience)
(When our desire is fulfilled, when we are
with people we love, when our kids are with us)
That's true, all those things.
Happiness begins with life itself, right? When you see children just feeling
life as they start to walk and run and see the open field and they want to
run. They have a clear blue sky and it makes them happy like a little colt.
All those things, just life, in life
itself you can start to find out what basic happiness is all about; then
comes the phases of growth, and finding the meaning of life. Understanding
the meaning of life becomes more important than the actual physical give and
take. That is very necessary for us, however the meaning of life and that
understanding, finding the meaning of life becomes more relevant as we
inspire. Because life itself is about growth. It's perpetual growth. It's
constant growth.
We have to learn, we will learn whether we
like it or not, one way or another about the greater meaning of God and the
will of God, the love of God. Because understanding the essence of God's
love is a life-long journey, and I don't think that it ends there. That's
what we're taught that we will forever eternally have a relationship with
God and in the Divine relationship there is something called True love that
we offer each other, because the meaning of love to me is offering.
When we truly offer our selves, our
greatest, of course the meaning of love, the definition of love, will
constantly expand because it should. You're growing; you have to expand.
Of course after finding the meaning of life you come to the point where it
has some way or another that it has to be manifest; it has to be
substantiated. So the fulfillment of life will give us happiness.
So the stages of formation, growth, and
completion/perfection as we understand the process as we go through it and
as we deliver the expectation, therefore complete the course. That's when
you understand what greater happiness means. When you're young just
learning something new or something exciting it might give you that kind of
feeling, stimulation, but it becomes more when you complete something when
you find fulfillment. So the fulfillment of life will also give you that
happiness that you seek.
Of course the final phase will be the
legacy phase of your life. You will die. We will die. I believe that the
greater problem is that the period of growth where you're trying to seek out
understanding, new understanding, greater understanding, about the meaning
of life. Sometimes it can be confusing.
You can say that true happiness comes from
having the ability of being able to see happiness in the eyes of others. It
sounds nice, but I'm not talking about a bank robber's happiness. He'd say
"I scored big and I'm very happy" I'm not talking about that kind of
happiness. There are certain boundaries there. Understand that boundary; it
takes time because we have to find the meaning in the end.
Obviously to a bank robber money is
meaningful. That's why he robs banks! I guess he is unable to make it
properly. So happiness itself can be defined in many different ways. You can
say that in the process of growth we try to understand happiness based on
individual, idiosyncratic ways first. Whatever your preferences are you can
say that we define happiness based on our idiosyncrasies or preferences.
When we get something that we prefer over the other and we have it or
possess it, it gives us happiness.
The process of growth becomes difficult
because you have to evaluate all those things; you have to make proper
analysis for judgment ultimately in the end because you'll be judged, and
prior to that, you have to make that analysis. What is truly happy for me?
What will bring me true happiness?
That is the period in which you struggle.
Sometimes the happiness that we seek perhaps might infringe upon somebody
else's existence. In the late '80s and early '90s my little brothers were
becoming company heads and Father was putting them in charge of businesses
and stuff and there were a lot of complaints. I used to tell them as long as
I don't have it, don't complain too much. And bringing that order, for me,
is happiness. Because that's what you have achieved.
It's not really what that I possess that
brings me happiness; sometimes it's the opposite. Understanding that kind of
stuff through life, and understanding how you connect, you make the
connection, and what is does, the kind of things that you're trying to
achieve, the things that your are building in growth. Once you start to
figure out the meaning behind it, the meaning always has to be something
greater.
So, until this day I try to keep that kind
of concept and life that way. That's better especially because of what I…
There was a time when I was struggling too on a personal level, kind of
personal faith challenges. But all-in-all in the end, if you have to think
about it, you are not just who you are a connection to something greater.
There is an historical presence. You are that, a by product of, according to
Father, the providence.
So, that's a challenge to understand it
and trying to manifest it, and if you do, if you do succeed in your mind, it
starts from somewhere; it starts somewhere, it starts with you. And others
can recognize. Obviously that will define happiness for you. It will
substantiate the happiness to you because of your action, not just to
yourself, but to others.
That kind of stuff, as it accumulates, it
becomes something greater, and pretty much that's what you're going to
fulfill in the end. Fulfillment is all those feelings that happen, all those
things that others recognize, and ultimately that will be your legacy. When
you're dead and gone that's all they will remember.
That will become, not just your own
happiness, because you have completed something, because you have perfected
yourself. It's beyond that. It becomes something to someone else, even after
you're gone. It can count as something that can make other people happy
after you're dead.
Happiness is not that far away from you;
it starts from oneself and how much you're willing to listen to what you're
inner self, your true self, is saying. Finding that is going to take your
lifetime. You're not always sensitive. You have good days and you have bad
days. You feel like an idiot on some days; you don't always feel sharp and
smart. It's a life-long journey just to listen to that inner self because
what makes everybody... What is true happiness, it's the kind of happiness
through which we can rejoice with God, exchange with God, relate with God.
It has to be something that all of us can
feel. True happiness is universal. Universal in what way? The Creator's own.
You have to understand to recognize that; It takes time to recognize that.
One day you try to talk about your inner self, your inner truth, your inner
happiness to a little kid; I don't think they'll understand what you're
talking about.
There are always steps. There's always
formation, growth and perfection of something just to get to a certain
phase; and there will be many phases. How can you be happy with just
completing one thing? Every body says that something better is coming
tomorrow. Right? Because, if you have everything today, then there is no
concept of better, right?
That's why we live. We try to find
happiness just in life itself, just because we're given the opportunity to
have life until the state of greater things. People that have faith, at
least try to have some kind of pure heart, humble heart. I don't want you
to... If you ask all the people that say they believe in that, if you
ask them to define it, they'll come up with all sorts of definitions.
The thing is, it takes time. It takes time
to be humble. It takes time to be pure. Because it's never ending. You wash
one time and you don't wash anymore until you die? (Laughter) Who'd do that
for hygienic reasons? It's something like that. Keeping purity takes a lot
of effort.
Any way, you know that I don't like to
talk too long. (Laughter) I guess today is the last day. (Last speech
of this year) I'll be gone a few days. It was meaningful for me
personally. I feel I've made… it heals to forgive his mother to care
about her and in the end to take care of the family. That's what I
feel. I think its fine. At the same time this has been a journey for
me. It was challenging in the beginning because I hadn't done it for such a
long time. (Speaking at Belvedere).
It means something to me. It meant
something to me. I learned a lot. I hope that I have shared
something that helped you in some ways. I hope you guys will have a
merry Christmas and a great New Year. And I'll see you next year.
I'll see you the second Sunday.
Okay?
All right, take care.
