Happiness is a concept that has inspired generations to seek
the meaning of it. The quest for it has led psychologists, scientists and
philosophers to come up with many theories. All the religion has happiness as
the core theme in it around which all its philosophy revolves. Wikipedia
defines happiness as “mental or emotional state of well being characterized by
positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy”. It has
got different meaning for different individuals. Some looks for uniqueness of
state of happiness in a subjective manner while other looks for uniformity of
principles that brings happiness to all individuals.
For me happiness is a mental state when I am totally
engrossed in the present without any consideration for past or future. For me
it is a state of mental peace where the chattering in the mind stops and one
sense a great sense of ease with oneself. All individuals has experienced these
moments of timelessness in one’s life. And these experiences have been the
motivating factor for individuals to undertake this quest for happiness and to
search for constant state of being in it which is also termed as enlightenment.
Most of the time individuals complain about past or dream
about future but never live in the present. Even during sleep very few
enlightened being gets sound sleep where mind simply stops chattering. We
believe that it is a state of being which is gifted to certain individuals whom
we called as someone who has attained enlightenment and consciously ignore the
potential that is within us to reach to that stage. When someone asked Osho
that can human being collectively attain the stage of enlightenment, he
answered in a very poetic fashion that man has reached the highest stage of
evolution which has imparted individuality to every human being. This stage has
given him/her the choice to make decision and it is up to individual to make a
choice whether to attain it or not. He called this process human revolution and
not evolution as it is a natural process while revolution is a result of
conscious effort.
To live in the present one has to completely align the as
taught by Anil Sir the different layers within the human being with mindfulness
at its core. As one becomes more conscious of one’s thought, then and only then
the realisation to attain happiness by being in present come into picture. The
technique for meditation as preached by Osho is to just watch your thought
without reacting to it (which acts as fuel for fire for the mind to harp back
on past or future) and slowly and steadily the mind will stop going astray and
come to the present.
In the Maslov theory of need explained by Mahesh Sir in the
class, one can also find the occurrence of “Aha” moment in one’s life at the
juncture when there is sublimation of energy in vertical direction which
finally takes us to the stage of self actualisation. It is the stage when time,
space and being mingle into one to create perfect synergy.
One can’t expect to reach to that stage in an instant. We
hear so many stories as to how Buddha attained enlightenment in a fraction of
second while sitting under the Bodhi tree and we all expect that moment for us
to come. But we forget the effort put behind in terms of developing the sense
of awareness so that it become natural in the end and in my opinion that
natural stage is called enlightenment- the only source of happiness. Even while
talking to Dr. Milton Bennet about his experience of volunteering and how it
changed his life, he said that before going for volunteering he has this desire
to develop consciousness within him and through that experience attain
happiness by delving deep into the field of his interest.
I think that is the greatest learning for me to get to that
stage where whatever I do I give my 100% from heart and mind and hopefully
someday attain the state of Nirvana.
