August 3, 2013: I think I’ve met Bobby McFerrin’s hero.

Mr. “Don’t Worry Be Happy” himself. An Indian swami who travels the world continually and doesn’t spend more than a week in one place. Swami Anubhavananda Saraswati, known as the “Be Happy” teacher taught at the Hindu Temple Society last week and left a trail of joy that I wish to document.

I met with him for a conversation at the Bethlehem home of Gopal Kris Kapoor, one of the swami’s followers who hosts him annually during his visits to the area.

The interview was exactly what you would expect from a man who walks the world with no boundaries or attachments. He spoke about issues of mental health, spirituality, sexuality and joy. I had the feeling of meeting with a laughing buddha, one of those divine men who have been said to traverse the world inspiring happiness in every city.

He doesn’t have a home. Has no organization. He doesn’t collect funds and he says that he is prepared to die at any moment.

He offers only that he was born in India. He doesn’t elaborate about the location because he says he has no links to anybody from the time his body was born. “It doesn’t mean anything,” he says, though all those details can be found in his passport.

His credo is never to bring the past or the future into the present. Here and now is the only place he inhabits, he insists.

I include some of the highlights from our interaction:

Milton Carrero: Why do they call you the happiness guru?

Swami Anubhavananda: “Because I am not miserable and I don’t make others miserable,” he bursts into laughter.

“Happiness is not laughing,” he continues. “That is not happiness. Happiness is living in this world at a zero-complaint level. There are not complaints about anything.

Happiness is: you live in the utter present.

MC: Can you provide an example?

SA: Suppose a joke is told, and you understand the joke and you laugh because you are happy. Now, that moment, You are neither man nor woman. You’re neither American nor non-American. You are neither young or old. You ARE. You’re not somebody. You just are.

MC: Can you talk about the nature of consciousness?

“Consciousness is one without the second. There are not two consciousness. Consciousness itself expresses itself as mind.

The tongue is separate from the teeth, but there is no sense of otherness.

MC: I forget the I, you forget the you.

SA: You have understood. (Silence)

People do not want to live in the present. You know, the human mind is such that it dies away when it is in the present.

MC: What is the best thing that can happen right now?

SA: I’m talking to a sweet person on Earth, to you. It’s the best thing that can happen right now.

MC: In that case we don’t even need to talk.

SA: Not at all. On the contrary the wisdom is eloquent only in the silence. The pure love need not become vocal. That love which is silent is the pure love.

MC: What keeps you going?

SA: It’s a pass-time. I have nothing to gain, nothing to lose. That’s why I don’t have an institution. I don’t have to do anything to this world. The world is most beautiful. I’m here to allow Him to express through me. He/she, no gender.

MC: How can we remain aware of the present moment?

SA: Whenever we become somebody we’re miserable. Take a deep breath and ask who is miserable? At the root of every misery there is somebody.

In deep sleep we are nobody and therefore we are happy.

MC: How can we apply this teaching while we are engaged in the world?

SA: Play your role perfectly well. After your role is over, forget and start living as an ordinary, simple, pure human being. That’s it.

Again the second job comes, you do the second role like an actor on the stage. He does the role of a criminal, he does the role of a saint, he does the role of war person, but in fact he is none.

MC: This is what we should do to discover happiness?

SA: If we want to discover and allow the happiness to express, this is one way.

The second: Whatever we do normally we do for getting happiness. Never do that. Whatever you do, do to express happiness.

If I’m talking to you to get happiness from you, I’m a beggar, but if I talk to you happily, my job is done.

Three: We have no choice to be in the past, we have no choice to be in the future. We have to live in the present without choice. And in present only we do all activities. And while you’re doing your activities if you’re happy, nobody can make you miserable.

MC: How do you keep your peace of mind when others near you are angry or confused?

SA: There are three types of people: Those who talk in the third person…

Normally, I, the first person, talk to the second person about the third person. When we talk about the third person, we are third class.

The second option, when I talk to you, I always talk about I. I’m a first class fool, those who go on bragging about himself.

There is a third option. I talk to you, I give importance to you. Neither to the third person, not to I, that is the way you be can be somebody 100 percent and this is possible only if you’re not running in the past or in the future.

When I look at you and talk to you if that reminds me of something in the past I will go away, I will not be with you. You can clearly understand whether somebody is with you or not in a fraction of moments.

So the only way to live with the people is to give importance to them. Neither talk about yourself nor talk about the third person.

And best when you start living with the world, give importance with everybody, you are with everybody, but in fact you’re with nobody.

MC: And in fact the other is you… 

SA: LAUGHTER...

One person asked me this question. What is the secret of your youth?

I told him, I don’ t know that I’m old or young. It’s your perception. But the secret is one: those who learn from every experience of their life, they never grow old. Because learning is a process in the child’s mind.

“I’m learning many things.” This is one the rarest things that I have heard from people, they don’t want to learn, they want to teach.

MC: Such is the nature of the mind…

SA: Whenever we drive the car, we go away from the house. In the same manner whenever we ride the vehicle of thought, we go away from ourselves.

I’m talking about freedom from thoughts. Let the thoughts be there, but stand apart.

MC: Do you have any children?

SA: I am not married. We observe celibacy from birth.

MC: I think most men struggle managing their sexual energy. Do you have any advice?

SA: For a man, sleeping with a wife, it’s considered a good use of sexual energy.

Otherwise, don’t get married. He has to live in tune with the wife and the wife in tune with the husband.

If the attraction between husband and wife, mutual attraction, dies away and they are still in their productive period, they cannot stay together. The mutual attraction is the God’s bond between man and woman.

MC: Can you tell us something about the experience of Samadhi or enlightenment?

That experience cannot be spoken, not only Samadhi, but any experience. This is beyond cause and effect. If you ask me sincerely, I really don’t know.

It is happening, it is happening … when it stops I have no problem.

Now this is experience is the best experience. I’m so happy to talk to you.

MC: Can you lead us in meditation?

SA: Stop talking to yourself.

Follow me on twitter: MiltonDCarrero

Search Smiling Swami in YouTube for SA’s teachings.

Source: Lehigh Valley Health, DT. August 3, 2013.