Why Every Being Seeks Happiness
Every human action is driven by the desire for happiness. This article explores why that instinct is universal and what it reveals about the soul’s true nature.
The Undeniable Fact
Observe any living being — a newborn child, a scholar, or even an animal — and one fact becomes undeniable:
Every being seeks happiness.
A child cries for milk.
A bird builds a nest for comfort.
A person works for security.
The methods differ.
The motivation does not.
No one voluntarily chooses suffering for its own sake.
This raises a fundamental question:
Why?
Why is the desire for happiness so constant, so urgent, and so universal?
Who taught the soul to love happiness?
The Source of the Instinct
No school taught us to desire joy.
No society programmed this instinct.
It is innate.
And if a desire is innate, it reveals something about our nature.
We feel hunger because the body requires food.
We feel thirst because the body requires water.
Similarly, if the soul feels an unending thirst for happiness, that indicates that happiness is its natural nourishment.
Desire reveals design.
Aṁśa and Aṁśī — The Relationship of Part and Whole
The Vedas describe the eternal relationship between the soul and God as Aṁśa (the part) and Aṁśī (the whole).
īśvara aṁśa jīva avināśī, cetana amala sahaja sukha rāśī
“The soul is a fraction of God — immortal, conscious, pure, and naturally blissful.”
(Ramcharitmanas)
God is defined in the Vedas as:
- Sat — Eternal Existence
- Chit — Supreme Consciousness
- Ānanda — Infinite Bliss
If the Whole is Bliss, the part naturally reflects that nature.
Just as a drop of ocean water contains the same essence as the ocean, the soul shares the qualitative nature of God.
Therefore, the soul is not accidentally seeking happiness.
It is seeking its source.
The Law of Spiritual Attraction
In nature, the part is always drawn toward its whole.
- A stone thrown upward returns to the earth.
- A river flows toward the ocean.
- A flame rises upward.
This is not moral instruction.
It is law.
Similarly, the soul is drawn toward God.
This attraction manifests as desire.
We do not merely “prefer” happiness.
We are compelled to seek it.
As long as the part feels separated from the Whole, the pull remains.
This pull is experienced in human life as longing.
The First Realization
Here the first major conclusion of Siddhānt emerges:
The desire for happiness is not sinful.
It is divine.
It is the call of the Whole drawing the part back toward itself.
The problem is not desire.
The problem is direction.
We attempt to satisfy a spiritual thirst with material objects.
We search for the Infinite within the finite.
And thus dissatisfaction continues.
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