Retired? Know how to 'be happy' always

After learning sustainability (Dharma) in the first stage and earning wealth (Artha) in the second stage, the third stage is to fulfill all desires (Kama) and live a heavenly life. It is through activity with a spirit of sacrifice (Yagna: Juhuyat swarga kaamah). The skilled are the best among the esteemed. Knowledge is the best wealth. Health is the best a person can gain from effort. Contentment is the best among pleasures. Retirement should not make any difference because the aim is to achieve the potential. A person realises his potential by doing what he likes to do best and from the passion for excellence. It includes the following:

    Develop joint family: A child learns to cooperate at home. Children and the parents are not financially dependent on each other. Parents should provide security to their married children. Children should give emotional support. Parents seek esteem from the extended family. They create assets.

Elders must lead with wisdom. Bhagavad Gita says, ‘You shall prosper through yagna and it shall fulfill all your desires. Workers must cooperate with  the knowledgeable. Then both benefit from the joint project'. Atharva Veda states, 'Gods in heaven neither refuse to cooperate nor are they jealous of each other. Let there be similar wisdom in your house'. According to Chanakya Neeti, 'Wise elders must set the example by practice. Others can learn from their practical wisdom’.

Satisfy higher level needs, such as for aesthetics, esteem and self-actualisation. Aesthetics gives heavenly happiness. Esteem comes from a virtuous act which benefits the society. Satisfaction of desire (Kamah) must increase virtue and wealth. According to  Sankara Bhashya on Bhagavad Gita, 'Desires are to get the favourable results of all activities – specified in the Veda and Vedanta. Prevention of undesirable activities sustains society. Elderly persons must work to sustain mankind (Loka Samgrahah)'. If a child does not follow, it means that the teachers (and parents) do not know or do not follow what they teach. Merit (Punya) can be acquired by helping others with knowledge and wealth acquired in the second stage. It is the opposite of selfishness (Papam). Example: ‘Laughing Buddha’.

False knowledge, the root cause of unhappiness, is prevented by developing intuitive true knowledge. Scriptures define a sage as a thinker who develops intuitive true knowledge, is in full control of his speech and enjoys comfort but is not attached to it. He feels a discomfort but his mind is not disturbed by it.  

A person in the third stage of life has already brought up his children through sacrifice and achieved success. He is a natural instructor (Guru) to educate other children. Experience based knowledge commands respect. 

Everybody is in the environment. Yet he alters the environment without showing concern for others. He forgets that any change of others affects him because of his relation with them. In Vedic era, a person in the third stage of life created a garden (Nandanika) or a grove fit for meditation (Tapovana). Working in a garden or with Nature provides a similar experience.

Lifetime achievement, aesthetics and contentment are the measures of success in the third stage of life. Wealth is for enjoying or giving. Otherwise it is lost’. If people around cannot appreciate, wealth gives no esteem. 

According to Sankara Bhasya on Bhagavad Gita, ‘Sense organs are controlled to prevent bad inputs and activities. Peace (Samah) is from control of thoughts relating to inputs by senses to develop contentment. It is from the feeling that resources are enough to meet the needs (Mana Tustih)’.  Contentment (Vishayanandah) is from satisfaction of a long-term need.

Fourth Stage Is to Enjoy Peace (Sat-Cit-Anandah)

The last stage is when a person has outgrown (Moksha) from desires by fulfilling all his desires in the third stage of life. Bhgavad Gita refers to this condition in Samksha Yoga and Karmasanyasa Yoga. Non-possessiveness and study of Vedanta in the third stage of life helps to gain peace and reduce the fear of death in the fourth stage. In Chapter 18 on Moksha Yoga, Bhagavad Gita outlines a method to develop peace.