The living entity by nature wants to be happy. This is natural.
The reason a person considered a success when he has money is because he can buy the things he thinks will make him happy. But the problem is, is that even though the person has so much money to buy all he wants, he is still not completely happy. If we think of someone famous like Elvis Presley, he was the biggest success, he made it to the top. Why did he end up possibly committing suicide? Why did he overdose on drugs? He was so successful. There are many cases like Elvis – people who are so successful, yet they take their lives. They are not experiencing the happiness they need to feel fulfilled; they are still experiencing extreme anxieties and unhappiness, so much so that they take their own lives.
We can think about this and understand that even though people with access to wealth and the opportunity to do whatever they want, this still doesn’t make them happy. They’re not actually happy within themselves.
There is no doubt that there is happiness there, no one can deny that there is happiness in different sensual experiences. But is it giving you as much happiness as you actually want? As you actually need? Are you actually fulfilled by it? And the answer is that the happiness derived from material sense enjoyment is not fully satisfying. It is not fully satisfying for the soul.
But once a person identifies themselves correctly as being spirit not matter then immediately all of the anxieties which they are faced with, which is based upon false bodily identification, all those anxieties are taken away. A person is burdened by so many false ideas due to their false identification with the material body. They have so many wrong ideas because they think, “I am the body.” This leads to so many mental anxieties.
So as soon as a person identifies themself as being spirit, aham brahmasmi, I am not matter, I’m spirit, I am not temporary, I’m eternal, then this in itself brings a great amount of happiness.
