True Joy

Consider the feelings you get from singing devotional songs at a spiritual function. If a song is being sung that is not very familiar to you or whose melody is not especially pleasing to your ear or if you are not drawn to the particular aspect of the divinity to which it is being sung, you might find that you have very little real feeling towards the song. You merely follow the song perfunctorily with your lips. What a great difference between that and a song which you love, which comes from the very core of your heart, emerging freely, spontaneously, with a great deal of joy, filling you with rapture and devotion for God.

In the same way, there is a vast difference between the temporary joys you derive from this apparent world and its transitory objects and phenomena, and the true joy that emerges from the depths of your heart. The latter joy is totally different from the temporary satisfaction you get from worldly things. This deep joy coming from the heart is associated with truth. It is permanent. It is detached from all transient worldly concerns. It represents the unity of the spirit. For this joy there is no possibility of change. There is nothing that can be added to true joy. It is full and complete in itself.

True joy comes from equanimity. Do not be carried away by or attach any importance to worldly things. Use your time and effort to control the vagaries of the mind and develop mental steadiness. Equal-mindedness; means that you remain unaffected by victory or defeat, by profit or loss, by joy or sorrow. Accept whatever happens, whatever comes your way, as the gift of God, to be enjoyed with great satisfaction, regarding it as a gift of love given to you for your own good. When your heart is not swayed by worldly things, when you treat all people and all things with equal mindedness, then you will experience true joy. Then your heart will be filled with feelings of love and satisfaction, and you will know the true joy of devotion.