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Is not Happiness within us?

What every human being seeks in life is happiness which to most of us is like chasing a butterfly - an elusive thing.  Happiness is not a gift or an accident.  It is our natural state  and mental condition.  Happy people find beauty and charm in every thing, in all living things and nature and in every normal action.  Wise men are happy even with small things but nothing pleases the fool!

It depends on the ability to work, to count one’s blessings and enjoy life (by righteous means of course).  Happiness is in the present but not in the distant future.  It is not chance but a choice.  One has to reach out for it when one sees it.  It is not wishing for what we do not have but enjoying what we have, by looking at it in the right perspective.  It is not what happens to us but how we perceive what happens.  In fact, happiness is proof of one’s success in the art of living.

Does money or power bring happiness? Certainly not. As it is said in ‘Panchatantra�:
‘Money causes pain in getting
     In the keeping pain and fretting
     Pain in loss, pain in spending
     Damn the trouble never ending�

Will Durant, the famous historian writes how he looked for happiness in knowledge and found only disillusionment.  He then sought happiness in travel and found weariness.  He then tried wealth and found only discord and worry,  and in writing, he was fatigued.

There is in London a research organization called DEMOS.  They conducted a research survey in 54 countries to find in which countries people are happy. To the astonishment of every one they found that in an affluent country like U.K. people are not happy but in developing countries like Bangladesh, Nigeria and Azerbaijan people are happy. According to Prof. Robert Worcester most of the people in Britain are unhappy on account of environmental problems, family mal- adjustments and human relations. Dinosaurs once ruled the earth but they became extinct because they could not adapt themselves to the changing environment. Likewise, research in 55 countries showed that additional income does not add to their sense of well-being. Power too is powerless to secure happiness.  Let us remember what Wolsey who wielded enormous power at one time said: “Had I served God with half the zeal with which I had served the king, he would not have abandoned me in my twilight years�. Poor men’s cottages may not be places of high philosophy, but they have a faith and attitude of their own, which serves as a shock absorber.  Cyril Donnolly said “Happiness lies in the fulfillment of the spirit through the body�. Often we think with our bodies. The body has its own wisdom. The body and the mind are inter-dependent. Within our mind and heart there is a deeper spring of joy with spiritual roots. Plato has rightly said: “If the head and the body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul�. Geothe, the German Philosopher echoed the same idea when he said “He who is plenteously provided from within needs but little from without�.

Even Shakespeare confirmed the inadequacy of power in his play MACBETH when the physician is questioned:

            “Can’t thou not minister to a mind deseased
            Pluck from memory a rooted sorrow
            Raze out the written troubles of the mind
             And with some oblivious antidote
             Cleanse the stuffed bosom
             Of that perilous matter which now sits upon it�

Power often accompanies guilt complex! It is difficult to acquire and retain it by fair means.
Honesty and character are the secular and non-spiritual sources of lasting happiness. Even if such people have to face poverty and other worldly problems, they stand like the Rock of Gibralter four-square to the blowing winds. Psychologists and pathologists have discovered that happy people tend to fall ill less often and recover more quickly. They even seem to age more slowly. They live longer without feeling that their warranty has expired with the onset of old age.

Confucius said “Mind is the reconciler between the body and the spirit with the healthy life as the result of reconcilement�. P. M. Symonds, the specialist in Psychology in Columbia University conducted a research project and found that the happy and the unhappy people have their own problems and often the same problems but the former has a positive outlook. They look life straight in the face with courage. They have mastered the technique of happiness by finding a positive for every negative and looking upon obstacles as opportunities.

We should realise the supremacy of the soul without blaming �destiny�, ‘luck�, ‘Government� or ‘somebody�.   Whether we realise it or not, we should accept responsibility for what happens to us. There is cause and effect syndrome to reckon with.  “The mind is its own place.  It can make a heaven of hell and hell of heaven,� as Milton said.  Heaven and hell are not in outer space.  They are inside man’s mind.  As Jesus Christ declared “The Kingdom of God is within us, not without us�.  Our good thoughts and deeds reward us with peace of mind and our evil thoughts and deeds boomerang on us.  As Emerson wisely observed: “If we pour perfume on others, a few drops will fall on us�.

Harold Sherman, the famous Psychologist said, “People should love, live and pour their resources prodigally into the task of living.  Then by an inherent law of nature, life pays them in their own coin�.  Life does not let you down. As Jesus Christ cautioned “Render unto Caesar the things that belong to him and to God the things that belong to Him�. How to curb the rising tide of emotions and control our feelings?  How to adjust our relations with others and communicate pleasantly? William James, the professor of Psychology, says “Human relations are the main thing�. Peter Drucker, the management expert feels that every organisation should have annual audit of human relations instead of the stereotyped financial audit.

Personality is defined as “the degree to which one interests, influences and serves other people�.  As Swami Vivekananda said “He alone lives who lives for others.  The rest are more dead than alive�. Bhagavadgita prescribes �Nishkama Karma� as the sacred principle of life.  It is ‘disinterested� but not ‘uninterested� service.

True happiness comes from detachment.  As T.S. Eliot says “For us there is only trying.  The rest is not our business�.  The Talmud says “The work is not for you to complete.  But neither are you to desist there of�.  R.L. Stevenson, the famous thinker and writer said, “The striving and not the grasping, the journeying and not the arriving are the sources of happiness.  All life that is not mechanical is spun of two strands-seeking for the bird and finding it�.

All the great western writers and philosophers support and confirm what India’s Bhagavadgita had said thousands of years ago;

    “We have only the right to work and never to bother about the fruit thereof�.
Let us turn on our green lights and switch off the red lights.  Let us strive to be optimistic, patient, unselfish and work vigorously.  If we do these things with noble thoughts, generous hearts and caring hands, we will be happy, atleast as happy as it is given to human beings on earth. Happiness is within our consciousness.  We need only to recognise, claim and bring it to light with a smile.  He is not well-dressed who does not smile!