This page provides sources/references for various statements made in D.O.’s chapter “Hinduism & Happiness” in The World Book of Happiness (pp. 163-165), edited by Leo Bormans, published in English in 2025 by Lannoo (see outlink here or inlink here for on Dutch, German, and French editions). Can request chapter [English] from author through ResearchGate.
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We can experience the world as a “mansion of mirth,” a place of abiding happiness, says the revered Hindu saint Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886)
See The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Gupta & Ramakrishna, 1942, trans. Nikhilananda): “the Bhakti scriptures describe this very world as a ‘mansion of mirth'” (p. 243, Chapter 11, from June 10, 1883).
the abiding joy of dwelling in this enduring vision… is affirmed as orders of magnitude greater than conventionally experienced happiness
See Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3.33 and Taittiriya Upanishad 2.8.1. Available in Sanskrit and English in Radhakrishnan, S. (1994). The Principal Upaniṣads. New Delhi: HarperCollins India. See pp. 266-267 and 550-552.
Hinduism regards attaining a fully ripened ego as both extremely difficult – the path being “sharp as a razor’s edge” – and exceedingly rare
See Katha Upanishad 1.2.7 and 1.3.14. Available in Radhakrishnan (1994), pp. 610, 628.