Four happiness hormones

A Yogi and a young doctor had an interesting conversation.

The doctor said to the Yogi, “Sir, you are telling that yoga and meditation results into happiness. I have done my research and found that happiness levels in humans are controlled by the hormones.”

“Interesting, please tell me more about these hormones”, replied the Yogi.

“There are four hormones that control the level of human happiness, namely endorphins, oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin. We should keep the level of these four hormones healthy in order to be happy all the time. The first one, endorphins is released in the body when we exercise. This hormone helps the body to cope with the pain that is associated with different body moments and stretching. It is also found that laughter also generates endorphins.”

Search your jewel within

In the olden times, traders used to travel far distances for trading precious goods. One of such trader was trying to sell a rare diamond in a city and exposed it to a small crowd. One spectator from the crowd turned greedy and thought of a plan to steal the precious stone. He tried to introduce himself to the trader and asked, “Where are you going, Sir?”.

“Well, I am going to Calcutta.”

“What a coincidence. I am also going to Calcutta. Can I give you a company.”

“That will be my pleasure.”, replied the trader.

Both travelled together during the day and stayed in a Dharamshala during the night. After midnight, the thief used to wake up and searched for the precious diamond everywhere. But he couldn’t find it. This episode continued for three days and three nights. 

Unearned and undeserved grace – Kripa

A Saint was visiting the US and a wealthy man came to meet him – Sir, I came to this country empty handed 20 years ago. In last 20 years, I worked very hard, and I have earned millions. Not only that I helped many of my employees to become successful. Even this temple where you are residing is founded by me only. I am the biggest donor of this temple. But, still it seems His grace is missing on me – I am suffering from diabetes, my wife is not happy with me and very often complains about getting divorce. My son is in the influence of bad social circle. I need some help.”

The saint  started smiling and called another gentleman who was serving in the temple. He asked, “Hey Madhav, when did you come to US?”

Get rid of your shackles first

Three friends were drinking in the evening at the outskirts of a small village. After drinking for a while, they were walking towards the village that was on the bank of a huge lake. While pointing at a boat anchored on the bank of the lake, one of the friends said, “My dear friends, it has been a while since we went on a boat together. Let’s go for a small ride like we used to do in the olden days.”

Everyone agreed and they all jumped on the boat. They kept rowing the boat into the darkness of the night. After a while, they got tired and one of them said,” It seems we have come quiet far and are getting tired now. I think we should return now or else we will get lost in the lake.”

The other one said, “Since we are tired, let’s rest for a few hours and then we will go back.”

Make your big problem small

A saint visited a small village in northern India. The villagers were telling the saint about all the problems that they face in day to day life – beginning with the water problem, electricity problem and leading eventually to the social and domestic problems.

All of a sudden, the saint closed his eyes and sat in a peaceful posture. All the villagers also sat around the saint and there was a complete silence. After a few minutes, saint opened his eyes and looked around. He pointed at a huge stone lying under the tree and he asked, “can someone bring the stone closer to me so that I can sit on it and give you the solutions to your problem.” 

The first villager got up. While trying to lift the stone, he said “Oh man, its too heavy. I cannot even move it”. Second one got up to try and said, “it’s a little heavy, but I think I can move it”. The saint told him to sit down. He pointed at a heavy built strong man. He went close to the stone and commented, “Oh, this is not at all heavy. Even my son can lift it.”  He pointed at his teen aged son to come forward. The little boy heard that the stone is not heavy and he came to the front with full confidence. He came closer and instead of lifting the stone, he started rolling it towards the saint.

Meditation brings happiness or happiness brings meditation

It is everyone’s experience that when we are happy, we feel complete from within, we feel at peace with ourselves and we can easily close our eyes in those moments of happiness and can enjoy without any external stimuli. However, the dilemma is that such happy moments are very short because most of the times those are derived from the fulfillment of a desire that we have chased. Such moments of happiness are short lived and once again you come back to your original state. The art of meditation can definitely introduce you to an avenue where you can prolong the moments of real inner happiness for as long as you want. 

There is a notion that in order to get rid of your depression, one should do mediation. But the problem is that when one is tense or depressed, one cannot concentrate, one cannot focus on the inner world, one cannot calm the mind, one cannot enjoy the inner peacefulness. Human mind generates a cloud of thoughts which over shadows the blissfulness emitting from deep within from “Anandmay Kosha”. Only way to blow off the cloud of thoughts is to equip the intellect with the wisdom of the Self. Once the intellect is armed with strength and purity, it will help to settle the clouds of thoughts- or in other words mind is calmed. It is only when the clouds are settled one can sit in meditation originating the thoughts of peace and blissfulness.

Stop running! It's time to guage

The chase for material success has caught an immense pace in recent times. Modern man is running more than ever in pursuit of wealth. In modern family, husband and wife- both are earning for more and more. It is quite logical as well. They have modeled their life based on the lifestyle of the rich and famous. They need a kick on daily basis- kick of a momentary pleasure- to get away from their mundane life. They have experienced that kick when they buy new clothes to fill their closet. They went out for dinners and had a good time. So, they need more money for enjoying more dinners in future. They have experienced that kick when they buy bigger cars, bigger home and so forth. This is based on their own experiences and based on the experience of the rich and famous that they follow. They think more money is needed to bring them those kick of momentary pleasures on daily basis. So, everyone is running in pursuit of money, money and more money.