Among the five rules of yoga you have to follow, the first is saucha – cleanliness. Keep yourself clean.
The second is santosha – keep yourself happy. Happiness is again a practice; it comes with practice. Pleasure increases dopamine in the system, whereas happiness brings up serotonin. Serotonin gives a sense of happiness. Dopamine creates cravings. It makes you want more, you feel good for a little while, and then you want more pleasure, and more, and then it leads to depression. But serotonin creates happiness.
Happiness can be cultivated. You can determine to be happy, and you spread happiness to everybody. Happiness focuses on the wholeness, whereas pleasure focuses on a particular individual object.
The third rule is tapas – doing things even though you don’t like them. Committed people are strong because they practise tapas. When you have no commitments, even small inconveniences make you want to run away. This lack of commitment is due to lack of tapas.
You always want convenience, and a little inconvenience you cannot tolerate. Young people today are becoming uncommitted and restless – they don’t want to continue anything. This is because of the lack of tapas. Convenience all the time does not yield good results. Persistence is necessary.
Tapas means penance. In ancient times, masters made students do tapas. You have to do some hard work, face hardship. Only then you get results. When you do hard work, then happiness, pleasure – everything follows you.
Then the next one is swadhyaya – self-study, awareness, mindfulness.
And the last one is devotion – love for the Divine, acknowledging the role of divinity, and surrender.
Convenience all the time does not yield good results. Persistence is necessary.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
