Contentment is the most positive quality of mind. Discontentment leads to strife, frustration, depression and anger, and is the natural result of the association of the senses with the sensorial world. As long as the senses are connected to the world, there is discontentment. No matter what one gains in life, there is a feeling of unhappiness and discontentment. If not with oneself, it is with other people. If not with other people, it is with society. If not with society, it is with the world. There is a feeling of discontentment and unhappiness all the time due to strife, pain and suffering.
The opposite quality of discontentment is contentment. The moment one feels contented, one begins to experience peace and happiness. In the absence of contentment, there is no peace and there is no happiness. Therefore, if one wants to discover peace within, one should develop the quality of santosha.
Santosha is a mental attitude, ‘Make me an instrument of Thy love’. It is the state of mind where one submits oneself to the higher grace and lives according to the cosmic will, not one’s own will. If one follows one’s will and desires, then at every step discontentment will raise its head. If one begins to believe and feel that one is only an instrument being played by the divine, contentment will gradually set in.
Someone once asked Sri Krishna, “Why do you always hold a flute?” He replied, “The flute is dear to me.” “Why?” asked the questioner. Sri Krishna said, “The flute is empty inside.” Nothing obstructs the bamboo; it is hollow inside a flute, therefore, any music can be created and played with it. Be like a flute, empty inside, if you want to be dear to God. Let Him play the melody that He wants to play with you.
The melody which God plays in one’s life is already defined and written. It is one’s destiny. Destiny is the melody played by God. If one accepts it, one becomes happy and content and there is no problem at all. However, if one wishes to create and play one’s own melody, there will be a problem, for nobody is a master musician and nobody knows how to use his own instrument.
How many people know how to use the instrument they have received in the right manner? Every individual has received this body; it is an instrument. Instead of using the faculties of the body properly, they misuse and abuse it. Every individual has received this mind, a great instrument which can connect one with the material and the transcendental both, but it has never been used properly. The mind, the intellect, the memory and the ego have always been misused and abused. No one has the skill, knowledge or understanding to improve the quality of karma, mind and life. Therefore, God is the only musician who can play music through the individual, and that music is pre-written in the form of destiny. Those who struggle against destined events find conflict, pain and anxiety at every step of their life. Those who practise santosha are able to accept any condition or situation they find themselves in.
Santosha can come alive only if there is an internal connection with the transcendental Self. In India, if a beggar on the street does not have anything to eat for three days, in the evening he will bring the palms of his hands together and say to God, “This is what you planned for me today; I did not have any food. I hope your plan for tomorrow is different.” This is the attitude that the beggars have, “If I did not receive anything today, it was the will of God. He is deciding what I should receive and what I should not.” In other countries, if a vagabond has not had anything to eat for a few days, he will come with a gun and shoot the next person to take his wallet. It is a different understanding of life.
A person who is even remotely connected with any concept, idea or thought of God, as manifest or unmanifest, with the idea of a cosmic higher Self, will always have greater access to contentment than a non-believer. That connection with the higher Self gives the inner strength to accept and survive any situation of life. It gives the strength and conviction that one is being looked after and can survive. Therefore, santosha is the outcome of having a connection, an understanding, a relationship with one’s inner higher Self. The biggest wealth of an individual is contentment.
Once one has acquired the wealth of contentment, one does not need anything else. Until then, one keeps running after mirages. The mirages are created by objects of enjoyment. Therefore, if one can cultivate balance in enjoyment, one will experience contentment and become free of the attraction for mirages. Santosha represents the ability to flow in life and not struggle.