By Urmila Devi Dasi
The happiness of bhakti is very hard to understand. Generally in the world we take “happiness” as being satisfaction for our body, mind, or both: pleasure of the senses, pleasing thoughts, pleasing emotions, pleasing relationships. Those who are intelligent enough to understand that we are different from body and mind seek a very different kind of happiness: liberation. In the happiness of liberation, peace and freedom are key. There is a sense of balance, detachment, and expansive bliss beyond anything the body and mind have to offer. But the great teachers of bhakti–divine loving service–tell us not to seek either of those two types of happiness. They say that desires for those types of happinesses are like witches or ghosts who make us forget the real essence of life.