"Define what happiness is to you"
Dear Friends,
Warm greetings on Diwali!
Today I would like to share a small incident that completely changed my attitude towards living a life. I was 15 yrs old sitting in front of my Guruji along with some other devotees. We were asked that when we will be happy? Someone said, "I'll be happy if I get a good job", another said "I'll be happy if I save a lot of money to secure myself and my family's future", I answered, "I'll be happy if I pass my exams well" and answers went on with almost same level of understanding.
After listening to all our answers Guruji asked us to define "happiness". We all tried but failed to answer it. Then Guruji said that the problem is that you never really taught how to live a happy life. So start thinking on it from now onwards. He refused to define happiness when asked and said that we are not that eligible to get a ready made definition because we may not accept it.
From that day onwards I often try to get the right definition of happiness and witnessed some critical observations of human beings that I would like to share with you which are surprising but very obvious. Before sharing it with you, let me also convey that even I was also the part of this observations. Some of my observations on human beings were:
- They think anxiously about the future and forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future.
- They lose their health to earn money and then lose money to restore health.
- They live as if they will never die, and die as though they had never lived.
And like this they forget to live life and just spend it. It may be possible because they don't know what makes them really happy or they don't know the difference between their needs and wants.
My search is still on and I don't know when it will end, but I am learning a lot in this journey that I would have missed if I had listened to the ready made answer of Guruji.
Hi Prateek,
ReplyDeleteQuite true. Looks like a helicopter view of living life. Indeed, an eventual long term understanding of every mind.
Regards.
Hi Prateek,
ReplyDeleteNice post...
Nobody knows the true meaning of Happiness..
Its juss a perception..
For a poor, even a one time could be a source of happiness..
and to a millionaire even a dinner with all the friends at a five star could not bring any happiness..
It entirely depends on a person's attitude towards life..
Regards,
Priyanka Bagadia
Dear Prateek,
ReplyDeleteWhat is Happiness?
Is it the philosophical concept, a synonym of success or a way to live life?
One do not value what one gets and always tries to get something else. He feels he would be happy if he achieve that landmark. Once he get there…alas! The happiness has moved ahead or so short to regard it as happiness.
The search for the ans. is going on. Till the time we get a solid ans., we can treat it as a self belief of life. One, if confident and determined, would get happiness in each and every act he performs (good or bad), irrespective of the result.
Some thoughts as mentioned by one of our friend* on her blog “Don’t expect to get anything back; don’t expect recognition for your efforts… don’t expect your genius to be discovered or your love to be understood.” These thoughts though difficult to follow, can lead to an everlasting happiness.
Regards,
Varun Agrawal
*Proton Jigna Makwana-http://jignamakwana.blogspot.com