Since the very beginning, the pursuit of happiness has been the primary goal of mankind. The progress that man has made so far—in science, industry, and civilization—stems from man's desire for happiness. But despite thousands of years of modernity and consumerism, why has happiness remained so elusive? Perhaps man has been delusional about happiness, even though he has always sought to acquire happiness.

Businessmen, for example, dedicate themselves to their business for money. An author writes for both money and popularity. A student studies for a degree and to earn. A religious man prays to a deity for perceived benefits. All of them dedicate themselves to their respective jobs, thinking that they will gain happiness in the end, but the jobs never end. If they do end, they get replaced by another. The more a man has, the more he desires to have. If his desires are not fulfilled, he suffers. If his desires are fulfilled, he gains momentary happiness but desires more thereafter. The very fact that man seeks happiness proves that man is devoid of happiness. Does man ever find happiness?

Happiness seems to be a state where there are no desires but just a satisfaction with what is there. This satiety, or sense of contentment, arises from within and must be independent of external factors. By appreciating simple things that are easy to attain, one remains happy longer. But when one pursues happiness through conventional means— such as craving more wealth, fame, or power, or sees others doing so, this sense of contentment diminishes.

In the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, the sage Yajnavalkya says to his wife, Maitreyi: "It is neither for the husband's sake, nor for the wife's sake, nor for the sake of the children, nor for the sake of wealth, nor for the sake of higher worlds, gods, and creatures that the husband, wife, children, wealth, higher worlds, gods, and creatures are dear, but it is because of one's own self that everything is dear." One's own self is by its nature content and complete, and is the true source of happiness. However, being unaware of this, the unwise try to acquire and associate with a number of external things, thinking that they can gain happiness (pleasures) from them.

Therefore, one should primarily "hear about one's own self, reflect on it, and meditate on it only, through which one becomes the knower of everything." Many years after the Upanishads, the Buddha reiterated the path to true happiness by leaving aside all conditioned things— "All conditioning is impermanent. All conditioning is suffering. All conditioning is non-self. One who sees this with wisdom gets rid of suffering."

We are raised from childhood to compare ourselves with others, to examine how happy we are compared to others, and to gain happiness by following and competing with others. Wouldn't we be happier without such externally imposed conditioning?

Most people remain unaware of social and cultural conditioning. The fundamental issue with these influences is that they create a continuous conflict between what one is and what one should ideally be, in order to be happy. Unaware of this, many struggle and suffer in their efforts to fulfill these ideals and to live according to them, as if they are supposed to become someone different from what they are. They start believing that happiness is something that can be sought and acquired if what they are supposed to do is done accordingly. Many actually forget what they are, and some do not admit what they are because of the inferiority complex that is created.

The ways in which people suffer and struggle to live according to their ideals—such as building new homes, buying new cars, seeking new ways to make money, pursuing new romantic partners, watching miserable soap operas with love triangles, building new industries, destroying nature, and being dishonest most of the time—may give the impression that people are inherently inhumane, ignorant, miserable, or even insane, but these are the effects of conditioning. By encouraging children to compete with each other from an early age, people make them obsessed with money. Similarly, by separating boys from girls from the beginning, they make them obsessed with romance. Only when individuals are obsessed with material things do they build, buy, and sell cars. When they are obsessed with romance, they create and watch movies featuring love triangles. The automobile industry, the entertainment industry, and many such industries flourish, which may be good for the economy, but this comes at the cost of artificially increasing desires and suffering for everyone. People tend to be hypocritical; after deliberately increasing their own suffering through bad conditioning, they sometimes claim to decrease it with other bad conditioning. Anyone interested in moksha, or nirvana or liberation from suffering, should thus focus on externally imposed conditioning first and try to free oneself from it.

A bird who is born inside a cage and is raised inside a cage may start liking the cage. But can a bird really be happy inside a cage? The escape is not in seeking a better type of conditioning and replacing one type of conditioning with another—not replacing one cage with another—but completely getting rid of all kinds of conditioning— getting rid of every piece of trash that mankind has accumulated over hundreds of millennia, across generations, in the making of societies and cultures; and picking only those that help make a bird truly a happy bird.

A bird is truly happy in her nest and when she flies freely because she has all her innate qualities when she is in freedom. Only by possessing these innate characteristics does she remain a happy bird. She doesn't strive or attempt to be happy—she is a happy bird.