If we ask 10 people to define what happiness is....? We obviously get 10 answers.. Most of us including me really do not know what happiness is and also not know; how we can be happy... this is said with the assumption that happiness has to be long lasting or forever. All spiritual knowledge tells us that happiness is being and not becoming. Most of us have read enough material and we keep hearing from many sources on what is being happy and how does one achieve this and all that....
The fundamental law and rule of any living is to be joyful and happy. No one will deny this as everything we do, we do for being happy. The measure and meaning of the concept keeps changing and this is also different for different people, different generations and different times. All the time, all of us want to be happy but we do not know for sure what it means and why do we fail to be happy.
As long as we keep chasing happiness, it will surely evade us as we are searching and seeking for it everywhere else except inside us... It is embedded all over us . It is deep rooted inside us and we need to get in touch with it. The nature of the happiness is that, its very personal and has to be experienced by being with oneself... There is no substitute for this.. Feeling happy for someone is not that real and one has to delve into this to accept this... If we are not happy we can’t experience others happiness. Happiness in that sense is the mirror and hence it reflects within us and with us.
All of us experience happiness because of several reasons and it varies obviously from person to person. There is nothing like real happiness and great happiness and all that... Meditation beings happiness to me, yoga can do the same to other, going to gym for someone else and walking to someone else. But that is momentary, and the real happiness is to know oneself, love the self and acknowledge everything about the self. The respect, care, love, for the self is what brings the real happiness. But the problem starts there....... again ... yes it does..
Once we are alright with the self, then comes the society, which includes the family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, unknown vulnerable people etc . Can i be happy eating pizza when i see and know someone out there is searching in the garbage for some food. Can i be happy driving the car, when a old lady is waiting in the bus stand and has to wait for 2 hours before she reaches home. Can i be happy with my home when i see the watchman sleeping on the ground....on a rainy winter night .. Can i be happy buying something for my children when i see the hapless children on the street, lost and sad.
Can i feel happy when i visit the hospitals and have the knowledge of the sick people not having money for treatment and better life.... Can i be happy when a wife is being harassed and a husband is helpless at his wives indifference? Can we all be happy if we see millions suffering because of complete failure of leadership in all walks of life..... then what happiness are we talking about ? Do we need to hide ourselves to be happy? Can someone be happy with all the sensitivity? Do we need to be insensitive to be happy? Can sensitive people not be happy? Yes we can be and we are..
The world is not such a bad place.... We need to get hooked to some spiritual knowledge and more importantly practise and cut down on our needs, on misguided definitions of life, surely on greed, lust desire, and need to be powerful and dominant.. This piece is as much to me as to all the people who are striving to find happiness.
Today morning i read what Dadi janki said ( the 94 year old happily
surviving brahma kumari) ... The great when asked how does she feel , she said GREAT... This great is a combination of happiness, joy and calmness. She said elaborately how to feel great and protect the feeling but couple of things appealed to me ...
1) Be the same inside and outside... If my inner world that is my thoughts, feelings, attitudes are in order and harmony then my outer life, that is my actions, words and relationship will be the same... Amazing point and wish to practise this...
2) We cannot feel great if we are victims of habits
3) I am the master of my own and i don’t blame anyone and i do my actions and i change the way i respond.
4) Observe how my inner world functions. When i see myself as i am , i accept myself as i am and then i can begin to create peace inside. When there is peace, then positivity follows and so is happiness.
5) When my mood fluctuates sometimes peaceful and sometimes not, then others are never sure how to deal with me. Then they cannot feel great. I must help others feel great by being stable.
None of the above is preaching.... I felt happiness can’t be there when one is sensitive about the world around... But we can radiate happiness by genuinely being happy... It costs nothing to be happy... Just wanting and being happy is enough and yes not by intellectualizing ....
God bless all
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