Follower of Buddhism Nithya Shanti talks about his quest for happiness in Ranchi on Thursday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Dec. 9: He is a modern-age sage who defies the image of conventional gurus and calls himself “happiness coach”.

A postgraduate from XLRI, Jamshedpur, Nithya Shanti was one of the many alumni pursuing a high-flying career like his peers. He worked with top-notch MNCs like HCL and Accenture, but wasn’t at peace. Soon, he realised his yearning for spiritual growth and inner mastery, and ventured into the wilderness of Thailand, and then Sri Lanka, to become a Buddhist monk.

Shanti is in the city on a two-day visit to spread his happiness mantra. Since his retreat as a monk in 2007, he has been conducting workshops, meditation camps and training programmes across the globe. The Pune-based guru’s disciples include company CEOs and even psychiatrists.

A batch of 20 Ranchiites will be trained in his happiness techniques for two days, beginning tomorrow. “Some of my joyful initiatives include the Art of Happiness Joyshop, Conscious Living, SMS (Some More Smile) for teens, the EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Joyshop and 10-day meditation retreats,” Shanti pointed out.

The former monk, who spent six rigorous years in remote jungles, living with meditation masters, pointed out that though Buddhism evolved in India, but methods of meditation and training weren’t available here anymore.

“Practising meditation and spirituality in deep forests has a special significance. As Gautam Buddha mentioned, living in the wilderness automatically teaches you to become more alive, more sensitive to nature. Concentration enhances as you become receptive to every minute details in the jungles — the rustling of leaves, chirping of birds, babble of rivulets and even serenity in the air,” he added.

So, what is the secret to happiness?

“There is a simple philosophy — stop seeking happiness. If you chase it, you automatically tend to assume that you don’t have enough to be happy and, ultimately, you will want everything around you to change according to yourself. So, when you wake up everyday, ask yourself how you can make others happy,” he said. “When you are giving something to others, you become happy since the feeling of not having enough for yourself fades away,” he added.

According to the master, no trainer can “give” happiness to anyone. The best he can do is guide one to choose between preference and liking.

On his learning experiences from XLRI vis-à-vis a Buddhist monk, he said while the former was focused on being a good manager, the latter taught him to manage happiness. “In a nutshell, the former was concerned with getting a good job and the latter with doing a good job,” he smiled.

Shanti observed that every individual should once in his lifetime live as a monk because, in Buddhism, there were no regulations. One can shift to normal course of living as and when he wants.

“It makes me happy to help people find happiness. It is very simple, actually. All it really requires is to love others,” he summed it up.