The theme for this month’s series of talks is Happiness. There is a reported ‘Great UNHAPPINESS Epidemic’. In the attempt at a solution, the most common go-to, both within psychiatry and medicine as well as by those who ‘self-medicate’ with legal or illegal drugs, alcohol, and other psychotropic substances, is a chemical solution. And even though it doesn’t work we just keep at it.
But what if the unhappiness and depression we experience is NOT a mental illness? What if it is just the natural reaction to seeking happiness where it cannot actually be found? Then there is nothing to ‘cure’. It would mean we need to seek happiness somewhere else. This is the inward journey – the spiritual quest.
One whose happiness is within, who is active and rejoices within, and whose aim is inward is actually the perfect mystic. He is liberated in the Supreme, and ultimately he attains the Supreme.– Bhagavad-gita 5.24