Searching

Beauty

Search for Happiness

by Hare Krishna Devi Dasi

It is described in the Vedanta sutra that every living entity is searching for happiness: "ananda-mayo bhyasat." Of course only in the human form of life does one have the capacity to enquire about the real source of eternal happiness, and even then, not many find or are given the answer in the form of service to the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna. However among lower species of life the search for happiness is more limited and consists mainly of the four animalpropensities - eating, sleeping, mating and defending. The lower down the form of life, the less there seems to be any conscious striving to obtain this happiness - an ant, for example, seems to work constantly, in an almost mechanical way - for ever prepared to climb over or go around endless obstacles which one may place in his way. If he had any 'human'-type emotions one might expect that, after the 100th time a brick is placed in front of him (seeming more like the Great Wall of China), he would throw his burden to the ground, stamping his foot and yelling, "That's it, I've had it with carrying twigs all day! All I've seen all day is walls, walls, walls, and I won't get a word of gratitude when I get back to the anthill85" But no, he works on. However although he doesn't seem to be capable of anything except slogging to and from the anthill all day, Krsna tells us that He is in the ant's heart, and that the ant is inhabited by a spirit soul, just like you and me. Srila Prabhupada confirms this "Just like, isvarah sarva-bhuytanam hrd-dese 'rjuna tisthati. Krsna says, 'My dear Arjuna, the Supreme

Personality of Godhead, Paramatma, is situated in everyone's heart.' That means Krsna, or God, is situated in your heart, in my heart, in cat's heart, in dog's heart, in everyone's, in ant's heart. There is heart in everyone, and there is Krsna. Isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese. Now hrd-dese means 'in the heart.' So sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese, so that means beginning from the small microbe up to the Brahma, all the living entities, they have got heart." [B. gita lecture June 10 1968 Montreal].

I have no way of knowing what an ant is thinking, but I can rest assured that he is thinking something. Even an ant will put up a fight, or turn to flight if he feels that he or his kind are in danger. If you lift a stone under which there is an ant nest, the frantic, almost maniacal hurry to carry all the eggs down under the ground is astonishing. I don't know how they communicate with each other, it is almost as if some have screamed, "Aaahhh! The eggs, get the eggs!" I guess their sense of happiness is; enough to eat, enough to drink, rest at appropriate times, and no one lifting up the stone on top of the nest. Maybe it would seem to be stretching the point a little to say that plants are also searching for happiness, but I have seen many instances where I can understand that this is so. Maybe it is easier to appreciate this if instead of happiness, we consider the plant's desire for the most conducive situation for optimum growth. Some plants are very fussy about the conditions they require - for example plants which like a very dry hot environment will simply rot away in damp wet conditions (such as those to be found 90% of the time in county Wicklow!). Some alpines have to be planted sideways into stonewalls because in that type of body they expect alpine conditions (in which they would normally spend the winter covered with a blanket of snow, rather than continually subjected to the wet - if they are sideways at least the water doesn't collect around the base of the leaves).

However the most astonishing thing to me is how each seed is aware of when it is the most advantageous time and place to germinate. All seeds require oxygen, water, and heat in order to germinate, and light immediately following germination. But seeds can tell when they are most likely to get all these requirements, and will become dormant if it looks unlikely that all their necessities will not be provided. For example, many tree and shrub seeds (particularly from northern regions) have to feel that they have undergone winter before they will germinate. It is quite logical really - seeds are produced in the autumn, after the summer flowering, and to germinate then, just in time for a cold wet winter, would be subjecting the new seedling to very harsh conditions. By waiting for a period of cold followed by milder temperatures, the seed thinks that spring has arrived, and it will have the entire growing season to get itself established before it must undergo the test of winter. Gardeners can 'fool' the seed by sowing it in a pot, which is then placed in the refrigerator for about 6 - 8 weeks and then brought out into the heat. Some seeds need light. If you cover them with soil after sowing (as one normally would) they will not germinate. This is because they are woodland plants. They know that their best chance is to start into growth in the spring (warmth) before the leaves all come out on the forest trees with which they expect to be surrounded, (and thus shaded). Therefore if they sense light in conjunction with the more normal requirements of heat and moisture they will germinate.

I find it amazing how every living entity, no matter how lowly, has the same basic goal - to find a good situation where he can live out the duration of his lifetime in a satisfactory manner - in other words to be happy. But for all their efforts, every single one is going to be frustrated in the end, because ultimately every living entity in this material world is going to have to leave that body, which he has so carefully tried to guide into a conducive situation, and start all over again in another body. Only in this human form of life can we expect to have any hope of achieving real happiness. We won't find it after 6 weeks in the fridge, nor will the seeds which are in mine at the moment (mind the seed trays when you open it to get the butter out!), but if we chant Hare Krsna, read Srila Prabhupada's books and try to perform some service for Krsna and His devotees, we are guaranteed to find that elusive eternal happiness in this very lifetime, a happiness which will then remain with us always. "So we have to accept this Krsna consciousness if we at all want to be happy and be situated in our normal condition. This is Krsna consciousness movement." [Srila Prabhupada, Oct 2nd 1968 Seattle]

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare