WEBVTT

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I'm now here to speak about happiness

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and the factors
that are said to lead to it.

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I know, presumptuous.

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Now, what's very interesting
about these factors

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is that all of us, kind of, know about it.

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After all, they've been around for ages.

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And in this permanence,
in this immutability of the factors,

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lies the paradox of happiness.

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All of us want happiness,

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all of us kind of know
where happiness exists,

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and yet so few of us are genuinely happy.

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Yes, so few,

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because those gleeful photographs

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on Instagram and Facebook,
notwithstanding. (Laughter)

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So, with this in mind,

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I intend my talk today to be
about three main themes.

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One, we are reiterating
the well-known paths of happiness;

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two, pinpointing the inbuilt
impediments in these paths;

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and three, suggesting certain ways
to counter these impediments.

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So, what are the well-known
paths of happiness?

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Broadly speaking, there are three of them.

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But before I get into the details of each,

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a word on their universal
character and validity,

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that how the same three paths

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seem to be suggested by philosophy,
religion, and empirical evidence.

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Let's take philosophy first.

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Let's first take the first rate
in Western and Eastern philosophy.

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Let's take Spinoza
and let's take the Bhagavad Gita.

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Now interestingly,

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the three paths suggested by Spinoza --

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the path of feminine virtues, 
masculine virtues,

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virtues of the informed mind --

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happen to be practically identical
with the paths suggested by the Gita:

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the paths of Gyana yoga,
Karma yoga, and Bhakti yoga.

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After philosophy,
when we come to religion,

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it's again very remarkable to note

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that most religions
tend to have a trinity.

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And that the three aspects of the trinity,

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they happen to be
in perfect correspondence

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to the three paths of happiness
suggested by the best in philosophy.

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How they correspond --
I'll gradually come to that.

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By trinity, of course, what I mean
is Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh of Hinduism;

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the son, the Father,
and the Holy Spirit of Christianity;

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Mohammed, Allah, and Al-Haqq of Islam;

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Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya
and Nirmanakaya of Buddhism.

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 
of Clint Eastwood. (Laughter)

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OK, that was to see
whether you're still with me.

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Finally we come to empirical evidence.

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Now, according to this,

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humanity can be broadly classified
into three personality types.

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Yes, the three personality types

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correspond to the three paths
of happiness.

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Now the three types are endomorphic,
mesomorphic and ectomorphic.

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Endomorphic: these guys
are soft and chubby.

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They're fond of luxury,
food, social company.

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The mesomorphic: they are
large-boned and muscular.

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They're active, combative,
lustful for power.

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And ectomorphic,
they're small-boned and slender.

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They're cerebral, sensitive, introverted.

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And all of us
are a combination of all three.

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Most of us are a combination
of all three in varying degrees,

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which also explains
why one man's happiness

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is so different than that of another.

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So now coming to the first path
of happiness: Bhakti yoga,

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the path of the Incarnation,
the path of the soft and chubby endomorph.

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So, the path of you can say,
love and devotion.

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Love, primarily, because what incarnation
is primarily asking us to do

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is to lead a life of love,
a life devoid of sin.

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The connection between love and sin?

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Sins are absence of love.

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They're forms of hatred,
greed, pride, anger, envy;

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hatred all.

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Hatred is not compatible with happiness.

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So with sins gone, hatred gone.

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Hatred gone, love comes in.

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And once love comes in --
well, you're happy.

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Think about it. I mean,
as cheesy as this might sound,

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your happiest days are ones
when everyone seems nice,

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when you're running low on hatred.

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The demanding wife seems justified,

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the cab driver seems amiable,

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the obnoxious boss seems to have a point,

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and the receptionist seems
positively, positively endearing.

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Which brings me to first love.

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Now when...

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you might have been in love, I believe,

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if you remember first love,

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you remember the wonderful feeling
of bliss that went with first love.

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The feeling of perpetually
being on cloud nine.

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Or could it be that Providence

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has deliberately embedded
this program of first love in all of us

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to acquaint us with the power of love?

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If love for one can lead
to this kind of happiness,

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imagine what kind of happiness
could be yielded by a love for all.

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The question is that what prevents us
from walking this path of love?

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What prevents us from loving all?

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A tempting and politically
incorrect answer.

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We don't love all people
because most people are bums.

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They don't deserve to be loved.

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Now how do we get past this impediment?

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With the simple realization
that be the best or worst of us,

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we actually don't have
much control over the way we are.

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We don't have much contribution
to the way we are.

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The family to which we were born,
the school we went to,

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who sat next to us in class,

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which book we read
at what point in time, and all such.

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Neither our DNA
nor our circumstances are our doing.

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So, let's cut the bums some slack.

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We won't be able
to cut all that slack in one go,

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so let's do it in phases.

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Let's remember that on that long road
from hatred to love,

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you have certain pit stops of resentment,
apathy, tolerance, cordiality, affection.

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So don't rush it, alright.

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Promote your subjects
one pit stop at a time,

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and then experience it for yourself.

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Experience how with each promotion

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a packet of happiness
just bursts into your being.

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For added flavor, for added pleasure,

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you might want to add
some action to that promotion,

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because in the end, real love
is not an emotion, it's an act.

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It's an act of the will that ultimately
transforms into a spiritual experience,

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and because it is an act,
we can hope to get better with practice.

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Which brings me
to the second path: Karma Yoga.

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Selfless action.

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One acts but he abandons
the rights with the results of that act.

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The path of the active
and combative mesomorph,

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in the Trinity of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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This is the father; father indeed,

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because when you consider
a kindergarten-going kid,

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that kid knows that it is him
who has to finish his homework,

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it is him who has
to tackle the school bully,

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who has to deal with the teacher.

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But yes, if something
drastically wrong happens,

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his father will be there for him.

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Alright.

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So Karma yoga then,
if I may borrow a cliché,

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is about "do your best, forget the rest."

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Sounds simple and soothing

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but all of us know
that it's easier said than done.

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Why?

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Because no matter how much we do

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there's always that nagging feeling
that we haven't done enough.

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You know, we've over the years
come to abandon

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that wonderful, wonderful
commodity called resignation.

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Too bad,

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because neuroscience tells us

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that while grappling with a problem,
when the mind resigns to an outcome,

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then the amygdala in the brain
stops sending forth signals

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of stress and anxiety.

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And here lies the inbuilt
impediment of Karma Yoga.

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All of us know that we need
to resign at some point.

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We're never able to figure out
where exactly that point lies.

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I mean, how much effort is commensurate
for me to say that I did my best?

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Well, one way to look at that question
could be to change perspective.

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OK?

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And when we see
that "change perspective,"

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I mean instead of figuring out ways

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to see how much more
could be done to achieve a goal,

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what could be done to achieve a goal,

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we try to figure out
how relevant the goal is.

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We disentangle ourselves
from the goal, we step back from it.

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We take a wider view of it
and then it starts to come to us.

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That how much effort is commensurate.

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However, that still
leaves us with a big problem.

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Because when you've been in this business
for sizing up your goals for long,

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eventually what could happen

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is that most goals
could begin to seem trivial.

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And a trivial goal
does not instigate action.

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We're up against a paradox again.

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Give too much relevance to your goals
and you see nervous tension;

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give too little relevance
and you see inactive depression.

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The solution?

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Well, not a clear cut one,

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but I get hints of it
in my morning tennis every day.

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This a place where I'm running,
I'm sweating, I'm strategizing.

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I've even been accused
of deliberately making false line calls.

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In short, I'm really keen to win.

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However, if I lose, that loss doesn't stay
with me for more than 15 minutes.

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So I guess the real trick of Karma Yoga

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lies in being able to replicate
that tennis match sagacity

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into everyday endeavor.

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And that brings me finally
to the final path that is Gyana Yoga,

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the path of the sensitive
and introverted ectomorph.

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The path of the Holy Spirit,

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that all transcending
and yet all pervading divine reality --

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Nirgun, Nirvishesh, Nirakar, Akarta.

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Without quality, without attribute,
without form, non-agent.

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In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad,

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when the boy's father is finished
telling about the divine reality to him

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he in the end adds,

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"And that, Svetaketu, art thou."

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"Tat twam asi."

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Not just Svetaketu,
but all of us are this divine reality.

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It is this divine reality
that is the core of our existence.

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Vedanta says so.

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Eckhart and Thomas Aquinas say so.

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The Muslim Sufi Al-Ghazali says so.

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Buddhism says so. Tao and Zen say so.

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Also, quantum physics says so.

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What is quantum entanglement
or the collapsing of wave functions?

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It is the divine reality

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where the observer, the observed,
and the observation blend into one.

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What is the phenomenon
where they successfully separate

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a subatomic particle
from its magnetic moment?

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Is it not a reality of which
quality is not an attribute?

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To realize our oneness
with this divine reality

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is the ultimate goal of every human life.

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But why aren't we able to do so?

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Because as Al Pacino says
in "Scent of a Woman,"

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"It's too damn hard."

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(Laughter)

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Hoo-ah!

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Actually, it's hard because
it's all uncharted territory.

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And what further cripples us
in this uncharted territory

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is the fact that we are
totally ignorant of our limitations.

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We will not believe that there is a limit
to our levels of understanding,

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that we share 98 percent
of our DNA with chimpanzees,

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and that the two percent jump in DNA

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should not result
in an infinite jump in brain capacity.

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So just as a chimpanzee
will never understand quantum theory,

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there are certain things
which even when explained to us

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we will not understand.

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Similarly, we will not believe

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that there could be stimuli
and sense perceptors

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other than the ones we know.

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We will not believe
that language and reason

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are prime tools of understanding,

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have some inherent
and inbuilt limitations.

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Wittgenstein in his "Tractatus"

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and Immanuel Kant
in his "Critique of Pure Reason"

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made some really valid expositions
about these limitations.

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Which is not to say
that knowledge and reason

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have no role whatsoever in Gyan yoga.

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They do. It's just that by themselves,
they are insufficient,

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they're not enough.

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It's like if you're a painter,

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then a good book

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containing some great critiques
on painting could be of great help to you.

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But the book itself
will not get you there.

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At some point, you need
to get your hands dirty,

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you need to pick up paint and brush.

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So, how do you pick up paint and brush?

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And how do you get
your hands dirty in Gyan yoga?

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Simple. Mindfulness and meditation.

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I won't go into the technique details,

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but I'll say what happens with your brain
and mind when you start to meditate.

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Your brain starts to alter itself
on a permanent basis.

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It's called neuroplasticity.

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Feel-good chemicals are secreted,
neural networks get rewired

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in a fashion that helps
to keep you stress-free.

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Cortical thickness increases,

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which assists in problem-solving,
planning and emotional regulation.

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Cell density decreases,

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but in areas
that are responsible for stress.

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In short, feel good after meditation
isn't just psychological.

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Alright.

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And which brings me to the point that...

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But anyway, just leave aside
the neuroscience.

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Let's come to the fact of what
is happening in terms of real experience.

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Well, in real experience,
when you're being mindful

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you're learning to respond
rather than react.

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When you're meditating

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you're learning to increase control
over your attention.

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You're thus making yourself
less and less vulnerable

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to any stray stimuli
that might aggravate you.

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With the stray stimuli
and the uncontrolled reactions

00:13:40.760 --> 00:13:41.937
out of the way,

00:13:41.937 --> 00:13:44.770
the dust begins to settle,
the mind becomes clearer.

00:13:44.770 --> 00:13:48.372
You can thus view yourself,
know yourself, at far greater clarity.

00:13:48.372 --> 00:13:52.660
Your prejudices, your preferences,
your desires, your aversions.

00:13:52.660 --> 00:13:55.890
You can clearly see their machinations,
their manipulations.

00:13:57.230 --> 00:13:59.050
Far more important than all this,

00:13:59.460 --> 00:14:01.210
when you're mindful,

00:14:01.210 --> 00:14:04.310
you begin to enjoy this whole show
as a spectator or witness.

00:14:04.310 --> 00:14:09.510
You know, the actor -- I, me, myself,
gradually starts to lose relevance.

00:14:10.070 --> 00:14:12.040
And when you start to view the world

00:14:12.450 --> 00:14:14.640
with a little less of self-reference,

00:14:15.080 --> 00:14:19.950
things automatically begin to seem
a bit more calm, a bit more pleasant.

00:14:21.070 --> 00:14:23.350
Well, that was about happiness
and the paradox.

00:14:23.350 --> 00:14:25.084
If you allow me just one more minute

00:14:25.084 --> 00:14:27.860
I'll let you know all the clichés
related to happiness.

00:14:28.530 --> 00:14:31.200
The clichés -- those phrases
which we hear so often

00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:34.070
that they cease to have
any meaning for us whatsoever.

00:14:34.620 --> 00:14:38.890
Now when we consider a cliché,
we view it as a point, that red point,

00:14:38.890 --> 00:14:40.691
on the circle of our understanding.

00:14:40.691 --> 00:14:41.850
When we take a side view

00:14:41.850 --> 00:14:46.310
we realize that what we thought
to be a circle is, in fact, a spiral.

00:14:46.310 --> 00:14:47.680
OK?

00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:52.132
Then it's further revealed
to us -- this is getting technical --,

00:14:52.132 --> 00:14:53.650
it's further revealed to us

00:14:53.650 --> 00:14:57.240
that the cliché which from
our top view appears to be fixed,

00:14:57.810 --> 00:15:03.140
actually has the potential to exist
at higher and higher planes of profundity.

00:15:03.800 --> 00:15:07.590
For example, the simple words,
the simple cliché:

00:15:07.590 --> 00:15:09.500
"Do your best, forget the rest"

00:15:09.500 --> 00:15:14.070
is true for both a school-going child
and the great philosopher Spinoza.

00:15:14.070 --> 00:15:18.429
But the insight that each derives
from these words is hugely different.

00:15:18.429 --> 00:15:19.690
So all I'm trying to say

00:15:19.690 --> 00:15:24.000
is that when it comes to clichés
related to happiness and spirituality,

00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:26.345
they tend to have
more than one layer of meanings.

00:15:26.610 --> 00:15:29.250
So, the thought that I want
to leave you with is:

00:15:32.150 --> 00:15:34.560
Let's not be shy
of revisiting our clichés.

00:15:34.560 --> 00:15:37.500
Let's not be shy of trying to unlock them

00:15:37.500 --> 00:15:40.320
using any combination of techniques
from the three paths.

00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:42.590
And yes, while using the three paths,

00:15:42.590 --> 00:15:44.610
let's not forget,
let's always keep in mind

00:15:44.610 --> 00:15:47.094
the basic principle
that lies at their core.

00:15:47.094 --> 00:15:51.074
The principle that before
we seek happiness,

00:15:51.994 --> 00:15:54.689
let's make ourselves
more conducive to receiving it.

00:15:55.009 --> 00:15:56.150
Thank you.

00:15:56.150 --> 00:15:58.310
(Applause)