What is happiness? Meaning of this word is different for
different people, but it is a fact that everyone in this world wants to be
happy.
Normally, people mistake the sensual pleasures as happiness
and hence their efforts are also directed towards these. It is considered that
happiness means a search for pleasures of the senses and a life full of sensory
joys is treated as a happy life. It is considered desirable to lead a life of
attachments, work hard, grow more food and develop industries and then the
country will prosper by all these and all will be happy. But the point is, if all
these comforts bring happiness into the lives, then the people having all these
comforts should be happy even now. All the developed countries which are full
of all these comforts must then have all happy and quiet people. However most
of the people even there are also unhappy, disturbed, impatient and worried. It
is, therefore necessary to consider seriously what happiness really is because
the pleasures arising out of several joys are not happiness. They are, in fact,
unhappiness because they have the restlessness, which makes one unhappy.
Happiness means ease and complete lack of restlessness and pleasures of senses
do not have that mental ease. Whatever we enjoy with the help of the senses is
sensual pleasure only. It is happiness in name only. Happiness is in fact an eternal
bliss and is above senses and cannot be had from the objects. Therefore sensual
pleasures are imaginary and are quite different from real happiness.
Other belief is that Happiness or Unhappiness lies in
imagination. It is said that if you want to be happy look towards the poor or
the one who do not posses as much as you do. Again, it is unkind to regard one
happy by imagining that one is better than the poor and the unhappy. This
attitude also satisfies the sense of pride of possessions. This can never be
called happiness. So, it is very unreasonable to hold that happiness lies in
imagination.
There is one more perception. People are asked to do this
and do that and are said that this way their desires would be satisfied and they
would get the desired objects and become happy. So, these people regard
happiness as satisfaction of desires and unhappiness as denial thereof. But,
the point here is- it is not possible to satisfy one's desires because there
are countless desires of countless people and the material things are limited. Also,
new desires arise as soon as the previous ones are satisfied. Thus the eternal
current of desires continues for ever. It is, therefore, definite that ever
changing desires can never be satisfied. Conceptions like those of satisfaction
of desires and achieving consequent happiness are merely mirage in the ocean of
the great desert of life. All the desires are never going to be satisfied and we
are never going to be happy in the satisfaction of desires. It is also not
correct to say that we will be happy proportionately with the desires satisfied,
because real happiness lies in the absence of desires, not in their
satisfaction. Because we reduce our restlessness in partial absence of desires,
it can, therefore, naturally be understood that complete absence of desires
will lead us to complete happiness.
Real happiness is a matter of experience, not of speech, not
of demonstration. It is basically the state of harmony with yourself as well as
outside world. It can be had only by being one with our soul itself. Since the
soul is full of happiness, experience of the soul is the experience of
happiness. Happiness always comes from the inside. Even if the experience of
happiness appears to be coming from an outer source or experience, the actual
happiness is coming from the within. Happiness is not to be had from somewhere
else, for the soul is itself made of this happiness. Happiness is a warm glow
of the heart and mind at peace with itself. Happiness is not to be possessed;
it is to be enjoyed, to be experienced. It is the experience of living every
minute with love, grace and gratitude.
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