Remember those blissful childhood days? Just playing with your favourite toys. Or maybe just playing your friends. Life was simple. Nothing else mattered. You just got up in the morning and did your thing. Then starts school. Try to remember those feelings of wanting to play all day instead of doing your homework. All play and no work. That's the ultimate desire. We still hanker for that right now. When will the day be over so I can get out of work? When will the week be over? When's my holiday coming?
Small children desire to play all the time and big children, the adults, are trying hard to hold onto that fleeting moment.
We are always seeking that opportunity to enjoy but for some reason or other we are frustrated in our attempts to enjoy perpetually. Hankering after that which we don't have and lamenting after losing it. That moment of happiness remains for only a moment and disappears into the past only to remain as a memory. That memory also fades away in due course of time. We'll do anything to hold onto the happiness and ward off the distress.
Reminds me of thought provoking section of the book Perfection of Yoga.
We must always remember that we are in a material circumstance wherein at every moment our mind is subject to agitation. Actually we are not in a very comfortable situation. We are always thinking that by changing our situation we will overcome our mental agitation, and we are always thinking that when we reach a certain point, all mental agitations will disappear. But it is the nature of the material world that we cannot be free from anxiety. Our dilemma is that we are always trying to make a solution to our problems, but this universe is so designed that these solutions never come.
The yoga texts explain that we are by nature pleasure seeking. It is because of this inherent nature that we use whatever is in our possession to enjoy. The desire to enjoy perpetually comes from the fact that we are eternal spiritual entities encased in a material body. We're spiritual entities having a human experience. Unfortunately because of identifying with our body we have forgotten the method to enjoy eternally on the spiritual platform.
In the Bhagavad Gita, the prime yoga text, Krishna informs Arjuna matter is temporary and spirit is eternal. Once one comes to the platform of spirit, with the help of an authentic teacher of spiritual knowledge, then unending enjoyment can be experienced - even while living a normal life. You just need to learn the art of spiritualising your life. That's the solution.
Instead using your body, senses, mind and intelligence for endeavouring very hard for paltry temporary happiness the quick satisfaction of the senses, why not endeavour for permanent happiness? How? It's simple. Here's an example to help you understand. When you get an iron rod and put it into the fire after some time it gets red-hot. It gets so hot that it also can act like fire. Similarly by always keeping in touch with the spiritual platform your activities become spiritualised. In such a stage of spiritual life you can then begin to taste permanent lasting happiness.
When the iron rod becomes red-hot when placed in fire it acts like fire, similarly when we come in touch with the Supreme spirit, the Superself, we become spiritualised.
The Bhagavad Gita recommends you begin by practicing yoga - the art of connection between the individual self with the Superself, the source of pleasure. Of all yoga processes the best and easiest to perform is Bhakti yoga. The foremost practice within the Bhakti yoga system is mantra meditation. Mantra or spiritual sound vibration, enables you to always be in contact with the Superself on the spiritual platform.
The most effective mantra is the Maha-mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
The yoga texts mentioned that for this day and age this mantra is enough for perfecting one’s spiritual life. Just say it out loudly, clearly so you can hear each word. Repeat this process. Unlike normal sound vibrations you can go on repeating or chanting this mantra and never feel tired of it. In fact you will feel more and more pleasure by chanting.
Try it yourself!