Every one of us wants to be happy. Like the Kings and Queens of fairy tales we want to “Live Happily ever after”. But in reality very few of us are happy and that too never forever. The reason is not far to seek. For being happy, we must know where happiness lies. Without first understanding where happiness lies we go on searching for it in the wrong places and do not find it. We are like that fellow who lost his keys in the house, but was searching for it below a lamp post, as there was more light there! It is very clear that if we want to go to Delhi, we must board a train going to Delhi. Boarding a train going to Chennai, and then running in the corridor of the compartment in the direction of Delhi, will not take us to Delhi.
Happiness is the purpose and the goal of our lives, and yet…. all of us are pursuing a course which will never give happiness and is sure to yield unhappiness.
For being happy, we have to first understand where happiness lies. We believe that it lies in wealth, possessions, power and position in life. We believe that acquiring these will make us happy and we will live happily ever after. We blindly chase these and at the end of the day find that happiness has eluded us. That is because, in the first place, happiness is not in the 3 Ps (Possession, Power, Position), where we were seeking.
I had read this quotation in a booklet called “P.S. I Love You”:
“A newspaper survey asked, “Who are the happiest people?” These were the four winning answers:
A craftsman or artist whistling over a job well done
A child building sand castles
A mother bathing her baby
A doctor who has finished a difficult operation and saved a life.
You will note that money, power and possessions play no part in any of the answers.”
Happiness is certainly not in possessions and power. If it was so, then money, power and possessions should bring us eternal happiness.
Take the case of a person who loves eating “rasgullas”. To him rasgullas embody happiness. If asked to eat them, a first few will certainly result in making him feel great momentarily but after say, the sixth one, he would not enjoy rasgullas anymore. If forced to eat more he would become miserable. Similarly, to a person who enjoys only spicy food, rasgullas will not bring any happiness. Happiness then is not in rasgullas or spicy food! Happiness is also not in material possessions. The same is true of power and position in life. They do not bring happiness. Happiness is not in them. The issue is: Where is Happiness?
It is said that “Happiness is a State of Mind”. So true. A disturbed mind can never be happy. A peaceful mind, a mind at rest can be happy. As children, generally our minds were at rest. Any disturbance also did not last for long. We were neither pursuing possessions nor were we craving for power and prestige. We were content with what we had. The trouble started as we grew older. People around and particularly the media, TV, Newspapers, Bill Boards and hoardings brainwashed us into believing that material things make one happy, hence we started pursuing the wrong dreams. In other words, we boarded the wrong train which has taken us further away from our true destination. If we want to be happy, we have to stop the pursuit of wrong goals, get down from the wrong train, and board the right one. We all would agree that as children we were a lot more happier. Let us then become more like children who do not grieve about the past or worry about the future. Let us learn to live in the present. Let us learn to look at life with wonder-filled eyes. Let us remember those lines of Sahir:
Friend, happiness lies in living in the present and being content with whatever we have.
