Can we visualize happiness in the future with our minds? It is indeed feasible. Even if we may not be able to control the circumstances that emerge throughout the course of the day, if we determine that nothing will be able to alter our joyful disposition, you can be sure that nothing will.
Start by considering the future as a potential outcome and a contest between you and the cosmos. You must return anything given to you over the net, just like in a game of tennis. The ball may occasionally strike the net and land on your side, but more often than not, you’ll miss it entirely. Nonetheless, you’ll typically get it back via the internet!
The volleys might sometimes drag on for a very long period as you spar and joke around with the world.
Everything in life will be thrown at you. It will be necessary for you to continually swivel around, pirouet, and hit back at anything that is thrown your way because there are so many opponents serving their best aces all around you. You might choose to take pleasure in the numerous bantering or you can choose to sit down in defeat and hopeless agony and take constant hard shots. You are fully free to decide.
Because of the uncertainties surrounding employment and life in tough times, manifesting, the technique of concentrated thinking with the goal of making one’s thoughts a reality, has become a very popular discipline. As the pandemic started, the phrase “shut up I’m manifesting” actually became a defining meme.
As per Hindu thought, how we act in the present decides our future happiness. We can manifest happiness through conscious and deliberate actions. In the scriptures three types of happiness are defined. Physical (bhautika) happiness, or sukha, arising out of material comforts and sensual enjoyment. Mental (manasika) happiness, or ananda, arising from a sense of fulfilment and freedom from misery, pain, and anxieties. And, Spiritual (adhyatmika) happiness, or atmananda, arising out of enlightenment, and self-realisation.
In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali declares that the mere pursuit of happiness leads to worldly attachments and bondage. Ideally, happiness must be pursued as part of the way of life with Self Realisation as one’s ultimate goal.
To ensure happiness here and now, Hindu scriptures prescribe four life goals, called purusharthas, pursuing which we can experience physical, mental, and spiritual happiness. Broadly speaking, these are the pursuits of – morality (Dharma), prosperity (Artha), enjoyment (Kama), and liberation (Moksha).
