Gita Rahasya -Tilak 99

Gita Rahasya -Tilak

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CHAPTER V
THE CONSIDERATION OF HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS

(SUKHA-DUHKHA-VIVEKA)

sukham atyantikam yat tat buddhigrahyam atindriyam I [1]

Our philosophers have accepted the position that every human being in this world is continually struggling in order to obtain happiness, or to increase the amount of happiness which he has obtained, or to obviate or reduce his unhappiness. In the Santiparva, Bhrgu says the Bharadvaja [2] that :-"iha khalu amusmims ca loke vastupravrttayah sukhartham abhidhiyante na hy atahparam visistataram asti", i. e., "in this world or elsewhere, all activity is for obtaining: happiness, there is no other goal except this for dharma, artha, or kama." But, our philosophers say, though a man is suddenly seized by the hand of death, while he is grabbing a false coin in the belief that it is true because he does not understand in what true happiness lies, or while he is spending his life in the hope that happiness will come sometime or other, his neighbour does, not become any the wiser on that account, and follows the same mode of life ; and the cycle of life goes on in this way, nobody troubling to think in what true and permanent happiness lies. There is a great deal of difference between the opinions of Eastern and Western philosophers as to whether life consists only of unhappiness, or is principally happy or principally unhappy. Nevertheless, there is no difference of opinion about the fact that whichever position is accepted, the advantage of a man lies in obtaining the highest measure of happiness by preventing unhappiness to the greatest possible extent. The words 'hitam' (advantage), or 'sreyas' (merit), or 'kalyanam' (benefit) are ordinarily more often used than the word 'sukham' (happiness) ; and I shall later on explain what the difference between them is. Yet, if one takes for granted that the word ' happiness ' includes all kinds of benefits, then the [3] [4]

[5] proposition that ordinarily every human being strives to obtain happiness may be said to be generally accepted. But, on that account, the definitions of pain and happiness given in the Parasaragita included in the Mahabharata, [6]

namely : "yad istam tat sukham prahuh dvesyam duhkham ithesyate",

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References And Context

  1. Gita. 6. 21.
  2. (Ma. Bha. San. 190. 9)
  3. "That happiness is the most beatific happiness which being obtainable only by means of Reason (buddhi). is indipendent of the organs (indriyam)."
  4. G.R. _9
  5. GITA_RAHASYA OR KARMA_YOGA
  6. (Ma. Bha. San. 295. 27)

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