What is the Art of Being Happy?

By Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

I would like to take you into deeper knowledge soon. We will go into deeper knowledge, but for that the first thing you need to do is be satisfied.

See, in the world there is no end to problems. Some or the other problems keep coming up, either financial, or health related, or relationship related problems. And if none of these are there, there is the problem of someone saying something to you and you feeling upset about it. The mind keeps getting caught up in problems. You should rise above this, and understand that the nature of the world is like that.

See, if you have a home which is near the highway, how can you complain about noise? Similarly, if someone has a home in the forest and they are afraid of animals, then what can you say? If someone has a home near the ocean, and they are afraid of water, what can be said to them? Similarly, when you are in the world, there will be some pleasant experiences and some unpleasant experiences. There will be some blame and some praise, all of this will happen, but none of these should touch you, you should just keep moving ahead. So, sit happily, walk happily and do everything happily.

Someone asked me yesterday, 'What was the happiest time of your life?' I said, 'What? The happiest time? Why do you tie 'time' with 'happiness'? I am happiness'.

Time changes, sometimes there are good times and sometimes there are bad times. If you tie 'happiness' to 'time', then happiness will also change as times change. But when you know, that happiness has nothing to do with time, then you can be happy at all times. And this is knowledge!

We tie our happiness to people, places, situations, or time. All that you need to do is move away from this and realize that your nature is happiness, and it has nothing to do with time. This is the highest knowledge. It may sound very difficult, but it is not impossible. Any fool can be unhappy when things are not okay. But it takes courage to be happy even when things are falling apart. And you are all courageous and strong!
:)

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is the Founder of The Art of Living Foundation

PS: People from 152+ countries will be coming to celebrate life this March..to celebrate the diversity and spread Happiness :) Join in for the World Cultural Festival I 11th-13th March 2016