• Is there such a thing as Fate, and who decides it? Can a person change his/her fate, or is their entire life predetermined?
• Why is the world made to include so much unhappiness and suffering?
• Are souls reincarnated in a new body after death, or do we only live once?
• Do people have guardian angels and how can one make contact with them?
• What is the meaning of our dreams? Do they have some sort of logic or are they simply the expression of our deep-seated wishes and fears?
• Do each of us have a “soul mate” somewhere in the world, and how do we search them out?
It is ignorance about these questions that bring down sorrow upon a person both here and in the afterlife, regardless of whether or not someone believes in life after death. When people do not know the answer to these questions, or when they possess false conceptions regarding them, it is only possible, at best, for them to find physical pleasure and short-lived happiness during their time on Earth.
We assert that happiness is a state of the soul, which is attained through the implementation of the program for its (the soul’s) fulfillment. Only in such a case will one’s “soul sing for joy.” It is precisely the soul, and not the body, which is able to sing from bliss (which is not the same as true happiness) as a result of this or that earthly achievement or physical pleasure. But is it possible to realize your plan if you do not even suspect its existence? Or if you guess its existence, but cannot imagine what it might contain? Of course not. This is why for ignorant people happiness remains an unachievable dream.
One of the most destructive ideas that stems from ignorance is the opinion that people are created for complete happiness. This theory is the opposite of the “original sin” point of view, but no less dangerous. And it is a theory which has a large number of proponents, among them many respected figures.
There is a widely known saying from Leo Tolstoy’s classic of world literature which says that “man must be happy.”
In Russia there’s another popular saying, also attributable to a former author, Vladimir Korolenko (1853—1921): “Human beings are created for happiness as birds are created for flight.” This author and his works have long been forgotten by the general public, but this phrase took flight and is loved by all.
Konstantin Ushinsky (1824—1871), the founding father of Russian scientific pedagogy, also threw in his ten cents in support of this view of man’s fate: “The right to happiness is an inalienable right of all people.” As the highest authority on pedagogy in all of Russia, Ushinksy’s assertion made its way into all school programs in not only Tsarist but in Soviet Russia as well. And again people saw in this idea what they wanted to see: if a person has a right to happiness, then someone else (but not ourselves) has the responsibility of ensuring that happiness.
This deep misconception with respect to the meaning of life has taken root not only in Russian minds; long ago it spread throughout the entire world. It was developed rapidly during the third century B.C. by the great ancient Greek thinker Epicurus (342—241 B.C.), who not only played a major role in the philosophy of antiquity, but who also exercised significant influence on the worldview of millions of people in the following generations.
Epicurus stated that “for us pleasure is the beginning and end of a happy life.” That satisfaction of material needs will remove suffering and lead to happiness is the core of his philosophy, which quickly and easily took root in the soil of Greece and subsequently succeeded in spreading throughout the world.
The noted French writer and philosopher of the Renaissance Michel de Montaigne (1533—1592) proposed that man exists not to create ethical ideas for himself to strive to attain, but rather to be happy. To be fair, in his book Les Essais he does note that “our good or ill has no other dependence but on ourselves.”
“Man is placed on the earth not to become rich, but to become happy.” So thought the distinguished French writer Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), who has greatly influenced the belief systems of millions of people not only in France but throughout the entire world. This is the same Flaubert, by the way, who wrote in his Memoirs (1853): “Everything seems loathsome to me. I would hang myself with joy, only pride prevents me…” But few are acquainted with this side of his work, and Flaubert’s depression, by the way, had its roots precisely in his false conceptions about the meaning of life and the absence of any concept of harmony in the Universe.
The Indian philosopher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1914 – 2008) also enabled the wide spread of this illusion about people’s destinies.
In 1957, having undergone training in India, Maharishi created the worldwide Spiritual Regeneration Movement, and in 1958 began missionary work first in America and then in Europe. By the start of the twenty-first century, his Meditation Centers had spread throughout the world and his followers exceeded five million people.
What was the philosophy introduced by Maharishi to the Western World?
“Life is Bliss. Man is born to enjoy the grace of God. Just float in a stream of bliss and nature and this stream will take care of everything else.”
Of course, how could millions of suffering people not like such a philosophy? All that remained was to find this “stream of bliss,” immerse your head in it, and forget all about your troubles and sorrows, along with all your plans and responsibilities. The stream will take care of the rest.
Intentionally or unintentionally, Maharishi’s philosophy engendered the rise of the hippy movement, which took hold of the West during the 1960s. Hippies protested against traditional culture, called for peace and unity with nature, grew out their hair and wore ragged clothes, listened to rock-n-roll, smoked marijuana and engaged in meditation, sex, Zen Buddhism, and Taoism. Of course, they didn’t work anywhere and lived “in the stream of bliss and nature,” exactly as Maharishi suggested. But the word hippy only superficially resembles the word happy, and so the hippy movement, having exhausted itself, had already come to nothing by the 1970s; but the philosophy of bliss remained. And so, today 200 million drug addicts (according to the UN) are searching for the oblivion of “the stream,” which is carrying away not only happiness, but their very lives as well.
Over the loud choir of preachers suggesting the possibility of a Paradise on Earth it is almost impossible to hear the voice of German dramatist and philosopher Gotthold Lessing (1729—1781) coming to us from the depths of the eighteenth century:
“The primary reason for our dissatisfaction with life is the unfounded assumption that we have a right to complete and undisturbed happiness; that we are born for such happiness.”
Please read these words one more time: “…the unfounded assumption…” Where did Tolstoy, Ushinsky, Flaubert and other great minds draw their assumptions from, or, more precisely, assertions? Most likely from a great desire to be happy. Just as every man wishes to be happy, so that it was so easy for the sayings of these authoritative figures to pass on to their children and grandchildren… As a result millions of people in the world are absolutely sure that they are born to be happy. And because of this, they are in truth born bound for a completely different end: a collision of their false belief system with harsh reality, leading to stress, which is soon followed by depression and suffering. This is the source of Flaubert’s depression, of Gogol’s sad thoughts, and of the suffering of millions of people throughout the world.
So much suffering is produced by this one illusion! And so many more harmful misconceptions are firmly entrenched