Happiness

Ajnas cashraddadhanas ca samsayatma vinashyati, nayam loko 'sti na paro na sukham samsayatmanah

The ignorant, the faithless, and the doubting soul perish. For the doubting soul there is neither this world, nor the next, nor happiness.

Shaknothaiva yah sodhum prak sharira-vimokshanat, kama-krodhodbhavam vegam sa yuktah sa sukhi narah

One who is able to withstand the impulse of desire and anger even before giving up the body — that person is a yogi and is happy. The capacity to endure these powerful inner forces without being swept away is the very definition of yogic mastery.

Sattvam sukhe sanjayati rajah karmani bharata, jnanam avritya tu tamah pramade sanjayatyuta

Sattva attaches one to happiness, rajas to action, and tamas, covering knowledge, attaches to delusion. Each guna creates its own characteristic pull: sattva toward comfort, rajas toward activity, and tamas toward negligence.

sukham tv idanim tri-vidham srinu me bharatarsabha abhyasad ramate yatra duhkhantam ca nigacchati

Now hear from me the three kinds of happiness, O best of the Bharatas — the happiness in which one rejoices through practice and in which one reaches the end of sorrow. Even happiness must be examined through the lens of the gunas.

Yat tad agre visham iva pariname 'mritopamam, tat sukham sattvikam proktam atma-buddhi-prasada-jam

That happiness which seems like poison at first but is like nectar in the end, arising from the purity of one's own mind, is declared to be of the nature of goodness.