Collective Happiness
Published: 23 June 2022 | Written by Swami Rama
History reminds us that a particular society, community, or nation retards its growth when, out of rigidity or omission, it does not acknowledge its weaknesses. Fearing humiliation or suffering from inferiority complexes, such a society justifies its weakness, by either hiding it or pretending it is a great quality. Such a society or community moves towards its own doom. A human being or a society purifies itself, not by hiding its defects and weaknesses, but by removing them. For human mistakes and weaknesses, religions have offered a system of penances, but according to the Upanishads, there is no better penance than the resolution not to repeat the same mistake.
A penance should not be reduced to mere repentance. Repentance is the first step towards the correction of one’s mistake. It helps one of acknowledge the mistake and to convince the mind that it is not good to commit such mistakes over and over again. The second step is to confess the weakness in front of those who are loving, considerate, and compassionate. By taking this second step, a human being attains freedom from his guilt, fears, and self-condemnation, and thereby restores his power of will. He attains freedom from his own mood of dejection and re-establishes his cheerfulness. The third step is to recall his power of determination, resolve to withdraw his mind from such mistakes, and commit himself to positive actions. Psychology calls it re-education, whereas in the language of spirituality, it is called self-transformation.
A person walking on the path of self-transformation should be aware of his egoism. Even after practicing the great virtues of truthfulness, non-violence, and so on, he can feed his ego. The ego related to the realms of spirituality is more subtle and injurious than the ego related to one’s worldly success. By practicing diligently, one may attain concentration of mind, one may speak the truth, and one may serve others, but one cannot realize the Truth unless one surrenders one’s ego to the higher Self. A human being may be very close to his goal, but, because of a wall of egoism between him and the goal, remains alien to his own inner kingdom. After rising above his egocentric awareness, he finds the universe within himself and vice versa. It is only then that he loves all and excludes none. One who does not love his fellow beings cannot love God at all.
A human being is miserable if he fails to unfold and use his inner potentials. He is weak, and therefore, cannot help and serve others regardless of his desire to do so. In order to unfold his inner potentials, he must purify his ego or surrender it to the higher Reality. After renouncing slavery to the ego, he emerges from the confines of his body, senses, and mind. Through uninterrupted practice of meditation and contemplation, he one day attains illumination through discrimination. Illumined with the light of discrimination, he enters the kingdom of his eternal heart. He finds his whole life driven by the power of discrimination and faith, and performs his action under their guidance. Unless these two principles, discrimination and faith, are fully unfolded, a human being cannot rise above the spheres of the lower mind and ego. He cannot distinguish his right actions spontaneously, and he cannot perform his actions whole heartedly. Without perfect faith in the higher reality, he cannot attain freedom from his own anxiety and insecurity. Without discrimination and faith, he may perform his actions, but lives in a state of doubt. Therefore, the most important step towards self-transformation is to shred one’s ego, surrender it to the higher reality, and thereby attain the light of discrimination and pure faith. Once this step is completed, there will not be any conflicts in his thoughts, speech, and actions.
Humanity is suffering from its ego-born differences and inequality. Today, people discriminate against their own brothers and sisters simply on the basis of race, religion, caste, or complexion. In order to be free from these problems, a political settlement alone is not enough. When all human beings understand that their suffering has been brought on by ego, they will resolve all their differences. They will throw away the confinements of race, caste, religion, and sectarian feelings. Instead of identifying themselves with a particular group or community, they will identify themselves as human beings. Then, they will love all as their own family members. They will find a joy in renouncing their rights for the welfare of others. People will respect the feelings and rights of others more than their own. They will quickly resolve their external and internal conflicts.
Floating in the eternal stream of life, a human being has gone through countless life states. In his perennial journey, he has assumed numerous forms and names. He came and went while passing through the gates of death and birth and has gained the experience of various species. No one knows how long it has taken to be born in the human state, wherein one receives the powers of will, determination, thought, and so on. The stream of life is filled with experiences of, and reactions to, all his births and deaths. Death and birth seem to be an unending cycle. After a human being is born, he goes into the lap of death, and from death, he goes to the lap of birth. This process continues until he attains knowledge and realizes his true identity with the supreme Truth. Through the power of discrimination, he distinguishes himself from the non-self and, thereby, disidentifies himself from pain and miseries. A human being should be grateful to the One who has given him the power of discrimination. The self-shining, supreme Truth is the center of Consciousness. Intellect receives its discriminatory ability from the very center of Consciousness. By making the best use of one’s discrimination, a human being attains a state of fearlessness.
A human being can purify his mind and heart only after he has organized his external life properly. A mind scattered in the external world does not have time to contemplate the purpose of life. A heart distracted by conflicting emotions cannot have room for selfless love, compassion, and service. A human being should learn to adjust himself to his family, society, and community in such a way that he can create a peaceful environment for himself and others. All the social, moral, and ethical laws are meant to establish and maintain peace and harmony in society. A human being should respect those laws and adjust his personal goals without disturbing the goals of others. A human being can attain his personal goal without getting in the way of the welfare of others, if he keeps love as his central focus. By loving all, a human being practices all the other great principles such as non-violence, truthfulness, non-possessiveness, contentment, and so on. Love and negativity cannot coexist. Love for all human beings purifies one’s heart. As a result, one’s consciousness expands. One redefines one’s conception of love, and instead of loving human beings alone, all of creation falls within the range of one’s love. The thread of love unites all the diversities into one non-dual, unitary consciousness. By loving all, one loves the universal soul, God. As supreme love unfolds, conflicts, differences, hatred, jealousy, and selfishness disappear once and for all. One who loves all, considering this universe to be a divine manifestation of the supreme Divine Force, attains knowledge of the non-dual, absolute Reality. He realizes the universe as his own elaboration.
Human beings can attain the summum bonum of life, if they have a sound foundation in their family institution and society. Human beings cannot avoid the impact of their family or the community environment in which they were born and raised. The environment is created by all members of family and society. It requires collective effort and general awareness to restructure family and social values and bring a qualitative change conducive to human growth.
Non-stealing and non-possessiveness are the two great virtues that help us maintain a peaceful environment in both family and society. Human beings should learn to respect others’ thoughts and feelings. They should be more sensitive to the rights of others than to their own. People should strive to maintain the rights of their children, brothers, sisters, wife or husband, friends, and neighbours. They should be able to analyze their own rights and never trespass against the rights of others. A healthy society does not need to be guarded by police. Law and order should be accepted and maintained willingly, lovingly, and with full understanding. A healthy society does not need commandments, since it knows the value of commitment for its own sake. The people of such an evolved society care for and help one another. They have the courage to make others happy at the cost of their personal pleasures. They are the ones who enjoy the path of selfless service. Everyone receives the benefits of others’ generosity, love, compassion, and wisdom. Members of that evolved society attain the goal of life without facing too many distractions and disturbances. They find freedom and enlightenment as their birth right. Just by being born and raised in such a society, they are free from fear and insecurity. Unless we have such an evolved society, and unless we have an enlightening family environment, there is no hope for collective happiness.
Personal happiness can be attained, but only after prolonged and strenuous effort.
Editor’s Note
This is an excerpt from “A Call to Humanity” by Swami Rama, Chapter “Self-Realization,” pages 106 – 109 in the 1988 edition.
Although this book is out of print, for all other Swami Rama’s and Swami Veda Bharati’s published works, please email hyptbooks@gmail.com