Yoga for Sustained Happiness and Better Living: A Contemplative Enterprise

The pursuit of happiness and peace for a better living is an eternal quest and prominent goal of humanity since time immemorial. But most of the time it appears in life like a mirage because the happiness that we search for is temporary in nature as it is mostly hedonic for which we selfishly exploit nature and humanity at large. Besides, the chaos, anxiety, violence, suffering in the outer world has its invariable impact in the inner world. As a result, happiness appears a rare occasion in the painful journey of life. Spirituality works as a savior in this respect as it enlightens us how we can control our inner world and escape the suffering and pain caused by our reaction. Thus, spirituality through Yoga guides not only to know what sustained happiness is but also how to attain and retain it in life even in the midst of turbulent outer environment. The paper is an attempt to give a comprehensive understanding about what is Happiness and its different approaches and levels through the lens of Vedanta and positive psychology. This paper also explores how through Karma yoga (with the very idea of selfless service—service to man is service to God) and Raja yoga (psychic control by managing the state of mind –the “psychic entropy” as proposed by positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and ćittavrttinirodhaḥ as suggested by Yoga philosophy) sustained happiness and better living can be assured for every human being.