We all look for something...

Some look for physical power...

Others for money...

There are those who are after fame...

There are those who wish to create a family...

There are those who want to accumulate objects and possessions... etc. etc.

At first sight, we get the impression that we all look for different things. However, if we analyze it thoroughly, we will see that we all search for the same thing...

Every creature that moves in the universe is moved by the search for happiness...

Nevertheless, although happiness is what we seek most, the great majority of us experienced happiness searchers will tell you that, although there are small ephemeral moments, instants, of happiness, it does not exist in a constant form.

The sages of Hinduism will tell us that real happiness, or bliss, does not exist in the phenomenal world of names and forms...

That is to say that what's really important is not so much to find out what is it that we need, but to discover in what direction should be search...

As an example we can take any situation, object or substance that, according to our experience, gives us happiness... a painting, a melody, a cigarette, a beer... if we pay attention we will see that the sensation of happiness produced by any of those elements does not come from the painting or the beer... that is to say, if you take the painting to a laboratory and analyze it, you will find color, cloth, threads... but you will not find there happiness... if you analyze the beer you cannot find there any drop of happiness among its components... and exactly the same occurs if you go on analyzing each and every one of the objects, persons and things of this phenomenal reality, one by one...

Therefore I have to be honest and tell you that happiness is not found in this book either...

That sweet experience occurs very deep inside, in the depth of your interior, it is as if that view or that ice—cream have touched and activated something very intimate inside you...

And what we look for is happiness of infinite quantity, constant, eternal...

This book can direct you towards that infinite ocean of eternal absolute bliss that resides in you... as you...

At this point I have to clarify something very important, happiness and bliss are very different...

Happiness is a part of the dual reality, which is a coin with two sides, one is suffering, sorrow and pain, and the opposite is happiness...

One cannot exist without the other...

In fact, the entire coin is misery...

Bliss is absolute... in Sanskrit it is denominated "ananda", beyond pain and sorrow, but also beyond happiness and pleasure... transcendental to the entire misery...

Here is one of the greatest obstacles of the religious path and spiritual life, because to renounce pain, sorrow and grief is very easy. However, it may be extremely difficult to abandon happiness, pleasure and commodity... and the absolute bliss or God is found only if you completely through away the whole coin of misery...

Just like that story about the child that could not pull his small hand out of the glass jar, and the mother tried with soup, and the father wanted to bring a hammer and break the jar, but then the grandfather came and said: "Johnny, let go of the five cent coin".

And this is our situation, we don't accept our freedom because we refuse to let go of the five cent coin of this world...

In the search for bliss it is indispensable to abandon pain and suffering, but also happiness and pleasure, because the innate search for bliss is actually the search for our own authentic nature, for our authenticity, for God...

God is ananda, God is bliss...

Another great difficulty in the spiritual path is that many of us understand that the search for enlightenment, the search for God... is to run after something distant... we inquire about unknown places such as Vaikuntha or the paradise... we investigate about unfamiliar states called satori or nirvana...

Hinduism has this marvelous wisdom of hatha—yoga, which suggests us to stop running after the extraordinary, in order to observe the ordinary...

Hatha—yoga proposes that we search close, although it will be much more menacing and not far, promising as it may appear...

One of the great messages of hatha—yoga is that every investigation and search about you has to develop in your own reality; otherwise you can start a collection of dreams, myths, fantasies, dogmas and illusions in the name of religion...

You hear persons of different religions and spiritual paths speak, and you feel so discouraged, they speak about angels, paradise and demigods... they speak about incredible astral journeys, the creation and other worlds... they talk about incredible states of the soul such as nirvana, satori, samadhi and enlightenment...

And your reality, after all, only turns around the body...

Hatha—yoga and its sages have a very important message for you, the message that every journey, however long it may be, begins just there, in the place where you are found... even if you know perfectly well where you are headed to, it would be impossible for you to get there without knowing where you are, or in what place exactly you are found...

From your first session of hatha—yoga the body will stop being an obstacle for your spiritual evolution, and become a marvelous instrument and a great aid...

You will realize that the body is not an enemy of the soul, but that it is its expression, a miracle of the creation, that it is a manifestation of God...

It is right that you do not enter paradise with a physical body, but not because it is less spiritual or inferior, but because your body is the door of the entrance to God's kingdom... follow the body and you will find yourself here and now, the only place and time that the body knows...

Hatha—yoga teaches that the most extraordinary is found in the simple, in the ordinary, in the nearby, in the hand—palm... in your inhalation...

Many meditate, but only few really experience the reality, a person who has known hatha—yoga knows that he who searches distant places beyond the stars or extraordinary supernatural energies, is in danger of becoming a collector of illusions and fantasies...

One who has known hatha—yoga knows that to meditate is to watch, to observe what there is... as it is... the reality... that by trying to see what you cannot see, you can come to see what is not, but what you wish to be...

A hatha—yogi knows that to observe what there is, as it is... is the only way to invite life, existence, the mysterious reality, to continue revealing itself... it you... as you...

Your ever well—wisher,

Yogāchārya Bhaktivedanta Ramakrishnananda Swami Maharaja