1659: 4 Counterintuitive Secrets of Happiness — From Yale to Vedānta
Wisdom of the Sages
David Ramella
5 • 970 Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What really makes us happy? In this episode, we draw from Yale professor Dr. Laurie Santos’ research — featured on the Rich Roll Podcast — to uncover four surprising truths about happiness: the arrival fallacy, the bronze medal effect, how comfort can backfire, and why giving beats self-focus.
What’s remarkable is how these modern insights echo wisdom preserved in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The yogic texts long ago revealed that happiness and distress both come to us inevitably, and that wise souls redirect their energy toward devotion. In bhakti, this opens the door to a transcendental joy far beyond worldly ups and downs — most beautifully seen in the eternal love between Krishna and the residents of Vrindavan.
Srimad Bhagavatam 10.8.46-52
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | it's like you have this concept like of a romantic fixer of my issues you're the fixer of your |
| 0:08.7 | issues and it's not the raise it's not the promotion it's not this much in the bank account |
| 0:15.0 | it's not this car it's not the updated 2025 car because let's face it you are as excited excited for your, you know, iPhone 3 as you're |
| 0:23.8 | going to be as excited for your iPhone 17. |
| 0:26.1 | Experience is the same. |
| 0:27.0 | What's that? |
| 0:27.8 | The experience is the same. |
| 0:29.5 | What do you say? |
| 0:30.4 | The experience is the same. |
| 0:32.2 | It's not like you're suddenly was more ecstasy. |
| 0:34.7 | Yeah. |
| 0:35.4 | Yeah. |
| 0:36.9 | No, you know what that is? |
| 0:38.5 | That is called Red Bull happiness, you know? |
| 0:42.3 | It's not like real happiness. |
| 0:43.7 | It's like a quick dose of like, yeah, excitement. |
| 0:47.3 | And then the hits gone. |
| 0:48.9 | Right. |
| 0:49.1 | You come down. |
| 0:49.7 | The dopamine's over. |
| 0:51.3 | That's not what we want. |
| 0:52.5 | We want Red Bull energy. |
... |
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