Happy endings, as in movies and novels, attract us and evoke a longing for something similar in real life.

Gita wisdom assures us that we can all have a happy ending provided we redefine our conceptions about happiness and about endings.

Happiness: Our materialistic culture equates happiness with material happiness, but that is only a small part of happiness – and a treacherous part of it if it allures us away from the real happiness that awaits us at the spiritual level. We are souls and our eternal nature is delight forever in spiritual love with Krishna.

Ending: Movies and novels end with a state of material happiness that, it is fondly hoped, will go on forever – a hope that is as idealistic as it is unrealistic. Yet it is unrealistic only as long as we restrict reality to the material level. For us as eternal souls, all endings, even the brutal ending of death, are not endings, but simply changings. Changings that will continue as long as we let our consciousness stay locked at the material level. Once we realize our spiritual identity and are united in love with Krishna, then that is a happy ending that has no ending – it is a jolly continuing that goes on forever and ever.

The Bhagavad-gita ends (18.78) with Arjuna ready for war in accordance with Krishna’s will. To most people, that wouldn’t be a happy ending – maybe an exciting beginning. They would think of victory after the war as a happy ending. However, the Gita’s ending is profoundly symbolic – the loving union of our will, represented by Arjuna’s upraised bow, with Krishna’s will is itself the supreme victory. Whatever happens thereafter at the material level is irrelevant, for spiritually a happy narrative has already begun – a narrative that will happily continue forever.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18 Text 78

"Wherever there is Krishna, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion."