Is pleasure different than happiness? Sicne most of the Sajha visitors have grown up in Hindu and Buddhist tradition like myself, I will answer this question on the basis of these two schools of teaching. Sicne I have been talking about गीता and तिपिठक, don't think that I am a religious man. I never talk about abstract things like "god", life after death, angles etc, even though I have some knowledge about those. Nothing get changed right whether I believe or not in god, life after death etc? That's why I don't talk and discuss about them. I talk what I think is reality, what I believe is reality, what I know is reality. Nothing other than reality. You can test it. Don't take everything as religion if you see something in संस्कृत and पाली. There is a lot, a lot, a lot to be offered by these two ancient literatures. They have stored the experiencial knowledge of explorers. Those knowledes are as true as theory of gravity and theory of relativity. Test them and believe them. I love Geeta so much, not every single veres though, but most of them. I have started to recite Geeta when I was 11/12. I don't do it anymore, so I know few verses by heart. But I know many verses where they are. I have already forgotten the following verse, however, I knew where it was. I google searached it and explaining to you for your welfare :). This verse will answer the question at the top, whether pleasure and happiness are different. नास्ति बुद्दि र युक्तस्य नचायुक्तस्य भावना् । नचाभाव यता शान्तिरशान्तस्य कुत: सुख:म्।।-गीता If your sense organs are not under your control, you will not have wisdom. If you don't have wisdom there is no way that you will be able to purify your mind. If you are not able to purify your mind, there will be no peace for you. If you don't have a peace of mind, where the happiness will come from? Some people consider Geeta as more than 5 thousand years old, form my study I believe that it is not more than 2000 years. Does it matter? Reality is reality; truth is turth. It doesn't matter when it was discovered and who discovered. Don't discard this verse just because it was thousands of years old. Reality doesn't have any age. Test this verse, intellectually and then practically. If you find it false form your experiment then discard it. Otherwise, what you think doesn't matter. Nature doesn't follow your thoughts.