In the Adhyatma Samskara Sadhana Satras held previously, some yamas and niyamas which help in bettering the lifestyle were looked into. The first yama and niyama presented were manahprasad: happiness, and japa: disconnection from the world of senses and connecting with the inner world.

These two relate to each other, as happiness is the first necessity to focus the mind. When you are in distress and disturbed, can you do your japa? No way can the mind be focused on mantra or japa in moments of distress and anxiety.

On the other hand, when you are happy you can just immerse yourself in japa and not be distracted or diverted by any situation. Happiness is a quality of mind that allows you to focus, concentrate, imbibe and realize.

If you are not happy then the doors of learning are shut permanently. No matter how much effort you make, the mind will not give you its support as it is unhappy.

Just as an unhappy child will always bug you and bother you and a happy child will always believe you, respect you and obey you, in the same manner a happy mind will always lead you towards positivity and a disturbed mind will always highlight one of the six negative traits of life.

Whenever people misbehave with each other, one of the negative traits is raising the head, whether anger, frustration, desire, jealousy, envy or arrogance.

Look at your routine in the office, home or a yoga class, anything anywhere, and observe who is your negative companion all the time, who is your ‘friend’ for life, and also see how this friend stops you from seeing and imbibing the good.

The counterpart of these negative traits, happiness, is the quality of mind that makes it receptive. In that receptive state, in that happy and content state, you are able to disconnect easily from the sense objects and focus on something totally different, which is the experience of japa.

Ganga Darshan, Munger, 6 July 2016

 From the book “Yoga Chakra 4, Cultivating Satgunas”, pg.12-13, Sw. Niranjanananda Saraswati