Secure Enduring Happiness
There are five kinds of kleshas (sufferings) that stand in the way.
Avidya (ignorance) is one kind of suffering. What is this ignorance? In the scriptures, the question is asked, “Who is a moorkha (fool)?” The answer given is, “One who identifies himself with the body.” By this kind of identification the foolish one forgets his true nature. The day he realizes that he is not the body but the eternal indwelling spirit, that day he experiences true bliss. The body, the mind, and the intellect are all instruments. These are called karanas, It is a sign of ignorance to identify one’s self with these instruments. Avidya-klesha is the suffering arising out of ignorance. As long as man has a body, he experiences various kinds of sorrow.
The second klesha is abhinivesha-klesha (suffering due to mental infirmity). Mind is the cause of all kinds of desires and pains. All desires arise in the mind. When desires are not fulfilled, hatred arises. If the desires are realized, man loses his mental balance. Failing to realize how the mind is the cause of sorrow and giving a free rein to desires is abhinivesha-klesha. Only when man is able to give up desires and disregard the mind, which is the cause of desires, will be able to experience ananda (bliss).
The third is asthitha-klesha (suffering due to unsteadiness). This suffering arises from an insatiable appetite for all kinds of things. It is the result of one being immersed in the vagaries of the senses. To regard as enduring the sensuous pleasures that are impermanent is the cause of this type of suffering.
Raaga-klesha [the fourth] refers to the suffering arising out of attachment of all kinds. All other evil tendencies in man like hatred, envy, etc., have their root in attachment. It is this attachment that ruins the entire life of man. There should be a limit to one’s attachment to persons and things. Excessive attachment is the cause of sorrow. Man is unable to derive happiness from excessive possessions.
[The fifth] Dwesha-klesha (the suffering caused by hatred) arises when a man fails to obtain what he seeks from someone. This is the result of selfishness and self-seeking. Man is a seeker of happiness. He is essentially the repository of happiness. But not realizing this truth about himself man goes after happiness all over the world. He pursues studies in the belief that scholarship will give him happiness. But happiness eludes him. He tries to find happiness in work and fails to get it. Seeking happiness in married life, he meets with disappointment. Nor does he get it through children. Then he gets absorbed in the acquisition of wealth in the belief that wealth will give him the means of securing happiness. At the end of it all, he finds himself a pitiful creature when the wealth he acquired is either stolen or misused by his profligate progeny.
He then realizes that all his earlier efforts to secure happiness gave him only some temporary satisfaction but not any lasting joy. A wealthy man behaves like a dog in the manger. He will neither enjoy his wealth nor give it for good causes. A rich man should realize that sacrifice should be the hallmark of a wealthy man and that true happiness is to be got through sacrifice.
Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 25, Pp 47-49
