Baba says, ‘Remain constantly happy and make everyone happy.‘

To be happy is a pre-requisite to go to heaven. Really? Isn’t purity the pre-requisite to go to heaven. Yes, it is and happiness is the visible sign or proof of purity. The very name of heaven is ‘land of happiness‘; it’s not that I will become happy once I am in heaven, no!, I need to learn to be happy here, in the midst of impurity, sorrow and unhappiness. The more I imbibe purity, peace and happiness here, the higher my sovereignty.

‘If there isn’t happiness’, Baba says, ‘it means that there is some kind of impurity somewhere‘ – either the thoughts or actions are not accurate. Sure, I might not have the five vices in a big form – I don’t get violently angry but do I still get irritated or frustrated? Maybe I don’t have a roaring ego but do I still have expectations of people? Maybe I don’t think negatively that much, but do I think and speak wasteful or ordinary thoughts and words? Where there is impurity, much or little, there cannot be complete happiness. It’s like when something goes into my eye- it doesn’t have to be anything big, it could be a tiny speck of dust or a tiny eyelash and it bothers my eye to the point where I can’t see clearly, and I can’t rest until I have washed that speck out of my eye. So check, says Baba, to what extent have you imbibed purity into your life? is it still at a gross level or have you imbibed at a subtle level as well?

The very aim of Brahmin life, He reminds me, is to experience purity, peace and constant happiness- yes, that’s the prep work for heaven but it is also living my life in victory while here. If I can’t be happy with God as my Companion, then when else can I be happy? Brahmin life is a life of happiness, not of labor and upheaval, says Baba. I already lived a life of labor, struggle, upheaval and sorrow for half a cycle. The praise of my current life is: ‘if you want to know of super-sensuous joy, ask the gops and gopis.’ This super-sensuous joy is not attained at any other time in the cycle, it is only now, He reminds me.

So check, says Baba, what is the foundation of your happiness? Are you basing your happiness on some kind of limited attainment or temporary success? is it respect, name, fame? is it limited desires, meeting expectations or having preferences met: ‘I only like this’, ‘ask them to do it this way’. If I am basing my happiness on people, possessions or accomplishments, that is not eternal happiness. When the support shakes, the happiness also shakes. This is not the kind of happiness that you became a Brahmin for, did you?, asks Baba. Even people in the world experience this kind of happiness that comes and goes- that’s why they are frustrated, that’s why they are tensed because there is no certainty from one day to the next. My duty as a Brahmin, as God’s helper, is to be constantly happy based on eternal attainments and radiate that happiness into the atmosphere such that the souls who are tensed find respite, hope and courage. If I am tensed myself, then, I cannot be God’s instrument to help others.

‘You are the children of the Ocean of Happiness and so you are the ones who flow with the waves of happiness in every thought, at every second’, says Baba. But, He observes, you move away from your aim of constantly staying in internal happiness and get lost into the small streets of limited attainment. Today, because respect was received, or an expectation was met or a task was completed, or a desire was fulfilled, there is happiness. If there is an attainment that pleases the mind or thoughts, there is happiness. If there is anything lacking- the slightest disrespect, disapproval, an unmet desire- then, poof!, no more happiness. The aim was limited and so the attainment is limited. You didn’t have to become Brahmins for this, says Baba, this is an ordinary life, not an elevated life. No matter how great a service task I might be assigned, because of my ordinary thinking and aim, I will perform such actions that I will come down from unlimited attainments into limitations. Today there is pleasure, tomorrow confusion; today there is happiness, tomorrow upheaval, strife, dislike and this divorces me from my happiness. Baba says, ‘let go of such service, but don’t let go of your happiness.’

True service constantly gives the experience of remaining beyond the limited, the ordinary, and the temporary. I am, by definition, not expecting, demanding, preferring, earning, winning, competing, comparing and doing any of the other body conscious things when I am serving. If I do have any of these limited attitudes, then such a service is not true, it is mixed service. ‘Always have the aim’, Baba says, ‘of self progress, contentment and greatness through service.‘ To be content is to be eternally happy: ‘Having attained God, I have attained everything, there is nothing remaining. Whatever I do, I do it unto God, not for myself or to impress anyone else.’ To do service means to bring the garden of flowers into blossom, says Baba, not to become trapped in the jungle of thorns. Upheaval, lack of attainment, confusion of the mind, fluctuation; all these are the thorns. To move away from all these thorns means to experience happiness. That might mean that I let go of the desire for recognition, maybe I worked hard but I didn’t get the promotion, it might mean that I need to forgive someone that betrayed me- some things I need to renounce, others I need to let go; let me do what I need to, but no matter what happens, Baba insists, you mustn’t let go of happiness.

Don’t draw away from the aim that you have come to fulfil, let there be such checking, He says. Ask yourself while moving along: ‘I am not entering into some limited street, am I? Is the happiness of temporary attainment drawing me away from the eternal fortune of happiness?’ The sign of eternal happiness is that one is constantly receiving blessings of happiness from BapDada and the service companions, says Baba. The blessings of the love of BapDada and other souls will give the experience of being in the waves of the ocean of internal spiritual happiness. Sometimes, I deceive myself into thinking: ‘I am okay, I am happy, but others don’t see it’. Baba says, ‘just as how the brightness of the sun cannot be hidden, the fragrance of purity and truthfulness cannot be erased. So, always keep this lesson firm and check yourself.‘ First comes my unlimited eternal happiness, everything else comes after. When I am truly happy, that automatically radiates and makes others light and happy; my contentment attracts opportunities and respect without my laboring, asking or even desiring it.

You became a Brahmin having died alive from the limited, Baba reminds me. If you still go back to it after having left it, then what is the point? when will you experience the unlimited, then? Don’t become ordinary and experience sorrow by going into the jungle of thorns and then ask BapDada for mercy, He says. You aren’t beggars, you are the children of the Donor. You are the embodiments of happiness, the children of the Bestower of Happiness. Now, give special attention to this aspect of being happy and making others happy, He says. The people of the world have a slogan: ‘Eat, drink and be merry’ but BapDada says, ‘Eat and teach others; be merry and make others merry.’