The Run for Happiness!

Verse 1.17.19 (Mohan Prji):

* Today, Dharma personified is answering Maharaj Parikshit's questions.
* But he is not directly answering it, but telling that there are a lot of pholosopies, so how is he to tell who is the cause of their problems.
* Everyone is seeking pleasure. Everyone is running behind happiness throughout the day and night.
* It is the nature of the soul, happiness, that is the reason we are trying to find this.
* So we try to find happiness in the object of the senses. We are looking to find pleasure in them.
* But if we slow down, step back and think, will this really bring us happiness. Then we will know is that happiness is not in the objects of the senses.
* E.g. eating a laddu, when a bad news comes to us. Laddu is sweet, but the potency to give happiness is not there in it, cause it is in the mind alone.
* Another example is from the SB, the example of the Avanti brahamana.
* Unless one controls the mind, he will never be able to find the supreme happiness.
* Spirituality is the answer. But some might say that there is no happiness there. The answer is that every moment, Krishna is giving us a chance to change our heart. All of a sudden this change of heart will not come. But in the rest of our life, we need to know that we are trying to change our heart through spiritual process, so even though it is slightly difficult, we need to continue.
* SP: Spiritual life is difficult, but material life is impossible.
* SB: One has to patiently suffer through the difficulties, but has to focus on the devotional service thinking that he is getting all these difficulties as a result of his own reactions only, then liberation or pure devotional service becomes your birth right.
* Application: Spiritual life is difficult, but material life is impossible, so we need to keep focus on spiritual life and continue forward.