Misery is not absence of happiness, but limited happiness. For as happiness recedes misery pours in.
– Swami Sri Ramananda Saraswati

Kabir – The couplet
कबीर सोई सूर्मा, मन सून मांधे झूझ ।
पंच प्यादा पारि ले, दूर करे सब दूज ।।

transliterated:
Kabir soyee soorma, man soon maande jhoojh |
Panch pyaada paari le, door kare sab dooj ||

Translation:
Says Kabir, he alone is the true warrior, who can battle the mind without fear |
Overcoming the shields of the five senses, he finds final victory over all duality ||

My thoughts:
Chasing after happiness, we forget to define what we really want. If happiness is the fulfillment of desire, it is truly ephemeral. The fulfillment of one desire quells the one, but gives birth to many more.

To want is to succumb to desire. And where desire lives, there thrives misery. For when we have it all, we find misery in not having something to want!

Then, should we be really be chasing happiness, or finding satisfaction? Happiness is the other face of misery, while satisfaction has peace as its shadow.

The five sensual desires – greed, anger, lust, attachment and pride – feed desire and drive want. Each step towards those accomplishments drives us deeper into the folds of misery (hidden behind the momentary happiness), and further away from the Eden of satisfaction.

Desire strengthens the mind – subdue desire, and the mind forever can become quiet. That is when we can truly realize the real us, and begin the conversation with the self that will lead to true salvation.

For the truly satisfied one has no emotion left but love – and that love will attract all that is required for attaining unending bliss.

Minus the mind, I no longer have the ‘other’ in me fighting my every step, misleading me at every turn. That is when I have begun the journey to self-realization, and have finally conquered duality.