Be Happy. Be Healthy. See the good. - सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः

This is the New Age of spiritualism, feel good quotations and tangent spirituality. The less you can understand, the better it is for your soul and your cool. Many times, new quotations are made just to be funny or snappy or witty, or just for the viral effect.

Many Sanskrit mantra-s are given an overall-mushy explanation, without going into the finer details, even at the average Joe's level of understanding.

Here is a very old quotation, by all means a couple of millennia, a mantra or a peace invocation (shAnti pATha, शान्ति पाठ) that has usually been translated as 'may all be happy, healthy and see the goodness, may not anyone get sorrow.' That sounds just like a mushy-two-shoes blessing, where all your problems will be solved by the divine grace of someone kind enough to bless you. Or to chant in your yoga-tea-or-coffe-club meetings. But there is more to this famous mantra:

सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः ।

सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत् ॥

sarvé bhavantu sukhinaḥ , sarvé santu nirāmayāḥ |

sarvé bhadrāṇi pashyantu , mā kashchid_duḥkha-bhāg-bhavét || [IAST]

sarve bhavantu sukhinaH , sarve santu nirAmayAH |

sarve bhadrANi pashyantu , mA kashchid_duHkha-bhAg-bhavet || [ITRANS]

All are ordered to be happy, be healthy, see good; 
may no one have a share in sorrow.

The mantra, or shloka has 4 parts or phrases. The first three have the same format - "All a-must-verb an-adjective"

Notice the bhavantu, santu, pashyantu? They are all imperative, ordering you to do the verb.
'sarve' means all. So this is about all. 'bhavantu sukhinaH' means all must be happy. 'sukhi' means comfortable, without sorrow, happy. And 'bhavantu means 'they must be [happy]'.

Similarly for santu (must be) and pashyantu (must see).

But the last one 'bhavet' is a wish - 'May you'.

Why so? Read on.

Be Happy.
You choose to be happy. It is a reaction to a situation, but you can make it a state of mind as well. You can be sad, depressed, angry, jealous or just be yourself - happy. The basic states of the divine and all of us are -' sat-chit-Ananda', that is, to be, to be aware and to be happy/blissful. That is our normal state. Children are usually happy, sometimes even for no reason. All they need is food and sleep and they are happy. Unless they meet a grumpy grown up! But if you are not happy now, just remember your childhood. Most of us have happy memories of our childhood.

No one else can make you happy. Even when 'bad' events happen, it is our attachment, our ignorance of the big play of Time, that we choose to be not happy. Don't say "So and so made me unhappy, or angry." Say, "I chose to be unhappy or angry in reaction to this or that situation." If you watch the nature documentaries about the animal kingdom, you find that the same basic tragedies happen to the animals as to us. We have compounded them by adding abstract pains and worries as well. Birth, death, meeting and separating keeps happening. That is what Krishna (kRiShNa, कृष्ण) says in Gita (gItA, गीता) - "Ups and downs come and go, bear them O Arjun."

Be Healthy.
Our natural state is of health. You may point out birth defects, and yes that is an exception. But rarely you find a life form unhealthy, unless they have just fought with an opponent. Bulls gore each other during the mating season, and that is the only injuries to an animal not yet hunted. Otherwise, they are all healthy.

We on the other hand, have made bad choices in our life style and started to fall ill. Too much sugar in our diet, which was never in abundance in nature. Too much food as such for the 'haves', and no food for the 'have-nots', causing illness in both groups. The obesity epidemic in US is just one example of what we can do to ourselves by bad choices.

The Sanskrit word for healthy is 'svastha' स्वस्थ - sva-stha - self-positioned, that is, one who is centered in Self, the natural state. That is everyone who survived the first few years of life is destined to be healthy. Even in modern medicine, when we think the doctor is helping with the medicine, the medicine mostly only controls the symptoms to ease our discomfort and helps the body heal itself. The body knows. It is us who don't listen to the signals due to our weakness of determination and make bad choices.

See the good.
As the saying goes - It is all in the attitude. If you want to see the bad, there is plenty. If you want to see the good, there is plenty too. It does not mean to turn a blind eye on evil, or where you can really improve. But don't just focus on the negative. See the positive also.

If you see only the negative in others and make their life miserable by constant nagging - what do you achieve with that? It doesn't help the person improve. And if your goal is not to help improve the other person then why even bother. And, sometimes things are beyond control. In which case you have to let go of the negative. A handicap person will not become able if you don't see beyond the handicap and focus on the positives, on what can-be, rather on what is-not.

All the above are under your control, they are within your will power. You choose the above.

Hence the dictate, the order is - "You must [choose to] be happy, you must [choose to] be healthy, you must [choose to] see the good."


May no one have sorrow.
There are three ways that 'duHkha' can come. The words are not exactly translatable without losing some other shades of the meaning. 'tApa' (ताप) or heat (tApa-mAna = temperature) also means that which scorches you, that which you endure. It also means sorrow, which scorches the heart. There are three sources of this sorrow/calamity/bad-state - self-inflicted (AdhyAtmika, आध्यात्मिक), inflicted by others (Adhi-bhautika, आधि-भौतिक) and caused by (super-)natural forces (Adhi-daivika, आधि-दैविक).

The "shAntiH, shAntiH, shAntiH" (शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ) at the end of a shAntiH pATha is not for 'three is a charm' but for these three types of sorrows to be calmed.

Since there is the 'other' factor here, there is the blessing that may no one have a share in sorrow. duHkha-bhAg is one who has a share in sorrow. So the blessing/wish goes - "May no one be a one-who-gets-a-share-in-sorrow."



So, unlike popularly understood, it is not 'May you be happy, healthy...'. No, you are hereby ordered to be happy, healthy ...

You have no choice now!

You are 'it' - the happy, healthy, nice person! You have been tagged!

Here is a very old mantra that is not only hip for today's times, it is actually the stark reality facing us. Not many of us realize the truth of this dictate-cum-blessing from the ancient seers.

Happiness, health and attitude are in our own hands.

Get up and be.

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And now the language aspects -

sarve = all
bhavantu = become (as in 'you have to become', imperative of 'bhavati' = happens)
sukhinaH = happy, without sorrow, comfortable.
santu = must, imperative of 'asti' (is)
nirAmayAH = without (nir) sickness (Amaya)
bhadrANi = nice, good, (plural). from bhadra = gracious, good, fortunate.
pashyantu = must see. imperative of pashyati (sees).
mA = not
kashchit = anyone/someone [kashit kAntA = some girl]

duHkha-bhAg = one who has a share in sorrow
duHkha = sorrow, pain
bhAg = share, or the who has a share in (from this comes bhAgya = destiny, your share of the future)

bhavet = may happen (as a wish or blessing)

So the last part means = may not one have sorrow in their share [of the destiny, future, life, ...]

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(c) shashikant joshi । शशिकांत जोशी । ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः ।
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