Being unconditionally happy is a practice

Patanjali Yoga Sutra Knowledge Sheet 73

Santosha: contentment, happiness is the second niyama.

Happiness again is an attitude. If you are used to being unhappy, even in the best of situation you will still grumble and be unhappy. Nothing can make you happy in the world. Do you see what I am saying?
When you are happy, what is happening? When you are smiling, what is happening? There is so much relaxation in the muscles of your face, in the head, and everywhere. There is freedom, there is joy, and there is relaxation.
But if you train your muscles and nervous system to being unhappy, then that same thing continues (unhappiness), that is, the knots in your face, the stiffness in your head, and in your body. You remain unhappy irrespective of the situation around you.

Santosha is a practice. Being unconditionally happy is a practice.

“Come what may today I am going to smile, anyway everyone is going to die. Everything is going to vanish and disappear, so what? Let me be at least happy. Smile this very moment and enjoy my very breath if not nothing (else)”.

If someone else is upset or something else is wrong, never mind, at least you can breathe happily. Nobody is going to hold your nose. You are free there.

You sell your happiness for peanuts. You sell your smile for pins. I tell you it is not worth it. The entire world is not worth your smile. Even if you are made the king or emperor of the world, it is not worth giving away your smile.

This is one of the rules of yoga: Santosha, (cultivating the practice of) being happy.

What is there to be unhappy? You are losing millions of dollars, is that what is making you unhappy? So what! You are going to lose this body which is going to enjoy the millions of dollars. So many people who have had millions of dollars have died. So what are you unhappy about?

You are unhappy about your friend leaving you? When your own body is going to desert you, why are you so worried about your friend deserting you? Good, one thing is gone, finished! You know sometimes people lose one thing at a time, and sometimes they lose everything together. This is the only choice you have, either you lose everything at once or you keep losing one by one. So if you lose a friend, think, “Okay, I have lost one, anyways after sometime this body will also go. I am in the second category. I am losing one by one".

You are unhappy about your friend leaving you? When your own body is going to desert you, why are you so worried about your friend deserting you? Good, one thing is gone, finished! You know sometimes people lose one thing at a time, and sometimes they lose everything together. This is the only choice you have, either you lose everything at once or you keep losing one by one. So if you lose a friend, think, "Okay, I have lost one, anyways after sometime this body will also go. I am in the second category. I am losing one by one".

You are not going to die along with your friend. And you are not going to take them to heaven even if they do want to come. Everyone has their own ticket, their own time, their own place booked. There you cannot say, "I want to sit next to so and so". You cannot demand for your room-mates there. Why not be happy now?

Strength of your happiness is measured by the adverse situations that you are in. If everything is smooth and you are giving a smile, then that smile is worth nothing. But if you could smile through any situation, through any event and say, “So what? I will keep a big smile. Let the world die and disappear, even then I am not going to sell my smile. I am not going to be unhappy”.

This strength in you is Santosha. This is an attitude to develop.

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(This is part of a series of knowledge sheets based on Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's commentaries on Patanjali Yoga Sutras.)