Santosham

Santosham was a word used often by Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. In fact just before he dropped his body Bhagavan looked to his assistant and uttered just one word, “Santosham”.

Santosham translates to Happiness. The meaning could be extended to include Contentment or to Feeling Complete.

Many years ago, as a child, I heard Swami Chinmayananda say something that stuck in my head. It was at his very first public talk in Mumbai, at the Indian Gymkhana in Matunga. He said, “Unhappiness is Desires divided by Desires Fulfilled.” Basically he meant that, unless you understood the game, the gap would never be filled. By implication it meant that the gap would ensure there was no santosham.

It automatically follows that with true santosham there are no expectations about the future, no clinging desires in the present and no complaints about the past. In other words, total acceptance of What Is. And that according to most Masters is the surest sign of total understanding. A sign of ‘purnata’(completeness).

With santosham one lives one’s life with easy spontaneity… in what science would aptly describe as “dynamic equilibrium”.