The Three Kinds of Happiness

 The Three Kinds of Happiness, by Haripada dasa

This information is in the Nectar of Devotion, chapter 1:

Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has analyzed the different sources of happiness. He has divided happiness into three categories, which are: 1) happiness derived from material enjoyment, 2) happiness derived from identifying with the Supreme Brahman, and 3) happiness derived from Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

In Tantra-śāstra, Lord Śiva speaks to his wife, Satī, in this way: "My dear wife, a person who has surrendered to the lotus feet of Govinda and who has developed pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness, can receive easily all the perfections desired by impersonalists; and beyond this, he can enjoy the happiness attained by pure devotees. "

Happiness derived from pure devotional service is the highest because it is eternal. But the happiness derived from material perfection or from understanding oneself as Brahman is inferior because it is temporary. There is no way to prevent one from falling from material happiness, and there is even every chance of falling from spiritual happiness derived from identifying with impersonal Brahman.

And in the Bhagavad-Gita, 18, 37 to 39 it is said that what at first may be like poison but which in the end is like nectar, and which awakens one in self-realization, is said to be happiness in the plane of the mode of goodness. The happiness that comes from the contact of the senses with their objects, and which at first appears to be nectar but at the end appears to be poison, is said to be of the nature of passion, and happiness that ignores self-realization, that it is a delusion from beginning to end, and that it proceeds from sleep, laziness, and illusion, is said to be of the nature of ignorance.