Happiness is a two-pronged process. For you to remain happy in life, you have to feel happiness on the inside and the outside. To achieve this, Ayurveda recommends you follow ‘Sadvrutta’ or the code of conduct. Here, the code of conduct refers to good personal and social behaviour which gives life beneficial to society and life which gives individual happiness.
Ayurveda defines Sadvrutta as compassion for all creatures, readiness to sacrifice, controlling the mind during physical, verbal and mental actions with the aid of wisdom, and considering others’ feelings as one’s own and acting accordingly. For application in everyday life, these concepts have been broken down into a series of easily followable directives. They are:
• Always speak the truth.
• Always speak at the proper time in limited words, pleasantly and meaningfully.
• Give respect to everyone and be respectable.
• Be courteous to the weak, children, and elders, and never make fun of them.
• Abstain from being jealous or greedy, and avoid making unwanted criticism, and enmity.
• Be patient and have control over your emotions.
• Do not feel exhilarated in success and depressed in failures, accept both confidently.
• Be enthusiastic, modest, intelligent and respect yourself
• Maintain good personal hygiene by brushing twice a day, bathing twice or once a day, and by trimming your hair, fingernails, and beard at appropriate times.
• Always cover the mouth while coughing, sneezing, or yawning.
• Clothes and footwear should be clean and appropriate to the season
• Always have fresh and clean food in clean utensils.
• Never eat stale or food inappropriate to your body or season.
Following these directives in your everyday life will help you feel happy within yourself and on the outside when with others. This will ensure you are content with your life on a personal level as well as a social level.
