Saturday, 22 September 2012

Karthick J_BLP032_Happiness_September 2012


Happiness is defined as the state of mind. Happiness is the outcome of one of the following experiences which could either be individual or combination of pleasure, engagement, relationship, meaning and accomplishment. The real meaning of happiness differs from individual to individual. I find connect between happiness and religions. Most of the religions guide people on the path to live a happy and satisfactory life. The teachings encourage people to do perform their duties with utmost sincerity and follow values while performing their duties. Values, forms an integral part of life. Values I think are an enabler for happiness. A person who leads life with values commands the respect from their peers. The peers respect the person not for his position, power, wealth or any other reasons. It is the values which enabled the person to gain the admiration and respect from their peers.  Happiness is derived out of values.  The question now is “what leads to happiness in this modern world? Is it values or the materialistic and luxury needs through corrupt means?” The religion stresses on the values, but what makes a person to seek out for materialistic and luxury needs by compromising on values? Maybe, the entire perception of a person on where happiness lies could be taking a dramatic shift from values to materialistic and luxury needs.  Who is to be blamed for this shift, should we blame the individual? Wait, the answer might lie not in the individual, it could lie in the environment the individual is in. The individual is conditioned to think on these lines. It is the people around this individual who should be blamed for corrupting the minds of the individual to do illegal activities to achieve the materialistic and luxury needs. I am not saying that a person shouldn’t aspire for the materialistic and luxury needs. The problem arises when a person compromises on values to achieve these needs. It is unfair and the person should surely be reprimanded for the act committed.

          Happiness can be achieved by values. Say, a person is aspiring to be a musician. The person should show the dedication to achieve this goal. The dedication is one of the products of the values. Then, the person should use the ethical means to achieve the stage to showcase the talent. This again is a part of values. When a person uses unacceptable means would be experiencing happiness only for a short duration of time. The person would ultimately be busted one day and would be subjected to humiliation in front of peers.

          Happiness is the outcome of one of the following experiences which could either be individual or combination of pleasure, engagement, relationship, meaning and accomplishment. Pleasure occurs when an individual derives from an activity which a person enjoys the most. Engagement occurs when a person is immersed in act which is enjoyable.  Relationship occurs due the social needs of a person. Meaning occurs when a person seeks a bigger purpose in life. Accomplishment occurs as a result of achievements experienced by the person.

          In order be happy one should look for the roadblocks which hinders them achieving happiness. Once, the roadblocks are identified solutions needs to be formulated to find alternative paths. Happiness is temporary. The mood of a person constantly changes. It is important for a person to be either intrinsically or externally motivated to continue doing the good things and adapt to new changes to achieve the happiness. The answers to happiness and the means to achieve happiness could possibly be found in our forgotten ancient Vedic scriptures as India happens to be a place where oldest civilizations existed.  

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