But, of course, none of the below is true of my mood, and I am quite happy and peaceful, but the broader point I am trying to make is, we should give up this obsession with being happy all the time. Whenever you feel tempted to think so, look up the two lines of Longfellow’s poem below.
Don’t medicate away your blues. The blues, too, have their lessons to teach you.
People make the mistake that if you are even a wee bit spiritually awakened, then you cannot have even the slightest trace of any kind of mental illness.
While I do agree that one cannot obviously be spiritually awakened and also be delusional or be hallucinating (though in some strange way that could also be shown to be possible, but if I push on it you guys will immediately brand me as being clearly crazy or delusional), at the same time it is NOT the case that with spiritual awakening one will be prancing on the streets going “Singing in the rain” or singing some kumbaya.
For instance, see what Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2, Verse 56) about who a sthithaprajna is:
duḥkheṣhv-anudvigna-manāḥ sukheṣhu vigata-spṛihaḥ
vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhaḥ sthita-dhīr munir uchyate
Translation:
He whose mind is not troubled in sorrow, who does not hanker after pleasures and is free from attachment fear and hatred, is called the sage of steady wisdom.
Now, some of you will jump at this and say, “Look, look, you are clearly delusional thinking you are a stithaprajna and moreover writing this at nearly 3 am in the morning, clearly shows that your Bipolar Disorder is showing up”, etc.
But, see what the verse is saying. It is saying “not troubled in sorrow”, and it is NOT saying “not having sorrow”. And, that is the crucial distinction because as Longfellow wrote in his poem “A Rainy Day”
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
The crucial thing to remember is that it is actually abnormal to be happy and smiling all the time.
As I wrote in a poem recently, God can take on any manifestation, including that of a slightly melancholic guy, and if that melancholic guy recognizes that his melancholiness is how God wants to manifest in this world at some point in time, then where is the problem, because the melancholic guy may not be troubled by his melancholiness despite the melancholiness being there.
I wonder if anyone will get what I am saying.
No matter, as I wrote and said before several times, “My unhappiness never made me unhappy”.
