Happiness -- all that we want

Seclusion—it can be so rewarding at times. A walk alone with no one around except the whistling trees and the blooming flowers, gleaming in the cool sunlight gives an unparalleled form of pleasure. These are the moments when we get a chance to reflect, realize and rethink life. Recently, during such stolen moments, I started thinking about happiness- something all of us live for. What exactly is happiness? It cannot be so easily defined.  Its literal meaning describes it as a state of mental and physical well being characterized by pleasant emotions. However, it is highly dependent on individual desires. 



For our ancestors, a family dinner, annual vacations- basically, time spent with family and friends was enough to lead a blissful happy life. However with time, people’s opinion of happiness has varied. Now, it has become materialistic- selfish, just like every other emotion these days.  Apparently, buying a new iPad, or a piece of designer jewellery, that’s all there is left to happiness these days.  Unfortunately, many people fail to grasp that this happiness is momentary.  There comes a time in life, when one needs true inner satisfaction. In this fast-paced world, we often find ourselves frustrated, bored, clueless, basically – depressed, and what do we do then? —many start throwing tantrums, some start living off anti-depressants , and few decide to take the nearest exit from this world- suicide. WHY? The main problem of our prevailing society is that we are such self-obsessed creatures.  God had created us to be the most sensible, thoughtful creatures on this planet, but somehow we have evolved into this new category of organisms what I would call - humanimals. All the actions we perform throughout the day seek to fulfill some motive. But this race of achievement has become a race against humanity. We are so blinded by our dreams, we never stop to think at whose cost we are fulfilling them. And then when our road to achievement is blocked by an obstacle, we start complaining why God is so unfair. Have we ever been fair on our part?



We are always on the quest for eternal happiness. But somehow along the way, we forget the basic lesson those old bedtime stories taught our innocent minds- ‘As you sow, so shall you reap’. Making someone smile fills one’s heart with such overwhelming joy which is difficult to express in words. You got to try it to believe it. But once you try, learn to wait. Patience seems to have evaporated these days. With growing technology, people have become so used to things happening in a blink of the eye that they expect happiness too to magically appear in an instant.  God doesn’t like the idea of fast-forwarding life with a remote control. He has assigned a time for everything to happen, so we should learn to wait. But first and foremost, we have to redefine our meaning of happiness.  We need to transform our worldly goals into spiritual endeavours.  Only then, can the heart and soul be content.



What I have learnt from all the events that have unfolded in my life, is that life is actually quite simple. It is just our choices, which decide how long it is going to be so. We enter this world crying, let us all pledge to leave it smiling. As quoted by popular essayist, Agnes Repplier, ‘It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.’ REFLECT! MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE!  ITS NEVER TOO LATE TO START OVER….