The happiness we know is short-lived. If we prolong it, it turns gloomy; try eating a delicacy day after day or watching an entertaining movie again and again. Can there be everlasting happiness? Even our short-lived happiness is not entirely due to external occurrences. There is an internalization of the external experiences that produces happiness. The delicious food we relish is an internal feeling. The art piece we appreciate at an exhibition is internal feeling. Our happiness, therefore, has to do with our internal feelings.

Our feelings depend upon our sensitivity. When we intently touch and feel our beloved, the pleasure is insurmountable. The more sensitive we are, greater is the feeling. Generally, we lose our sensitivity in chasing the worldly aspirations and become thick skinned. Sensitivity can be regained. The world outside can be experienced differently.

We could also sensitize ourselves to feel and enjoy our own self. Since the self is available to us all the time, the joy from feeling the self could be ours all the time. As you learn to enjoy the self, you also learn to enjoy the existence or the universe. These are not hypothetical prepositions but experiential truth for many.

Enlightenment is the name of this experience. Since existence is there eternally, the joy from feeling it is eternal too. That is, even after you perish physically, the joy remains (hearsay). Enlightenment is happiness, unabated. It frees you of worries and tensions of the world. Who would bother about losing a nickel when sitting on a goldmine? The feeling of oneness with the universe keeps you unperturbed. You simply watch and enjoy the hidden hand of nature creating and recreating things through and around you.

Enlightenment is not the end of the world. You still do your bit socially, politically, economically. You still meet successes and failures in life. You still suffer bodily. But you do not lose a night’s sleep over loses or celebrate your gains. It is no more a question of life and death to you, but a play. 

Enlightenment will not let you lie, cheat, abuse, hoard, steal, betray and the like; your increased sensitivity keeps you checked. Enlightenment also means more tears rolling down your cheeks for the sufferings your fellow beings undergo, oblivious of the truth.

Path to enlightenment is meditation. Meditation helps evolve your sensitivity by connecting you internally and arousing the feelings. The first milestone in sensitivity is reached when you are able to listen to the source-less sound eternally echoing in the universe. You touch the zenith in sensitivity when you existentially feel oneness with the existence. Meditate; go for enlightenment and experience the ultimate happiness man has ever known.