My Tryst with Happiness

My Tryst with Happiness

Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” -Susan Ertz,

The same old question, “what makes us happy?” and the same age-old answer; ‘It depends’. Well, it depends is probably the safest answer, that gives us enough leg-room, to explain, what we don’t understand or probably don’t try to understand. Happiness, a seemingly simple concept, allures everyone. It’s probably one of the most widely used words of the decade; and every one of us has something to advice on how to be happy. Every second post in Facebook or Twitter has something to do with happiness, so do numerous digital wallpapers, quotes, and even merchandises. All these hue and cry on happiness though create good business for ‘spiritual gururs’ and motivational speakers, do not always create happiness in our mind.

Allow me to give my philosophical discourse on happiness. Trust me; you won’t be any worse-off at the end of it. First, it`s important to understand the true nature of happiness. Happiness, for most of us signifies pleasure that comes from material abundance. So, the latest i-phone or the mountain-view apartment in south-Mumbai makes them happy, even though momentarily, until the launch of the newest BMW-7 series. This notion of happiness, promoted by Western culture and nurtured by our greedy and limitless desire, can be seen everywhere in today`s society. Every time, a Mercedes passes, we might wonder how happy the couple inside must be. Not necessarily. Material abundance has given America the status of the greatest nation on earth. Still, marriages are broken, families get collapsed, suicides are committed, and innocents are killed by maniac gunmen, every other day. All, notion of unhappiness are intact amidst the abundance of materialistic pleasure.

If we talk about happiness from the perspective of an individual, our idea of happiness differs, widely. One might say that happiness is a relative thing. When we compare ourselves with others, we might be unhappy and when we don’t, we can be happy. That reminds of the story of the old man who used to live in a one story house. Towards, the right of his house, there was a 5-story castle and towards the left, there was a cottage. Every time the old man used to look towards his right, he used to be sad, and whenever, he used to look at right he used to be happy. Our relatively bettered-off position in the society can make us happy, even though it`s a mere sense of false pride.

That might be true for most of us. We are unhappy at the success of others and happy at their failure. For me, happiness has a different meaning altogether. At this stage of my life, I feel like Santiago, the poor shepherd of ‘The Alchemist’, who traveled the whole desert to reach Egypt only to discover that the true meaning of his mission of life lies in his heart. I feel, I am the happiest when I allow my heart to flow on its own, throwing out all dogma, abolishing all barriers, destroying all fear, believing that it already knows what I want. The ultimate satisfaction, the long lasting happiness emanates when I listen to my heart and my inner voice, when I do the things I always wanted to do, without any prejudice, without any comparison to others and without the fear of failure. Listening to heart doesn’t mean doing whatever I feel like doing in an abrupt and erratic manner. When you try to listen to your inner voice, you would experience the stillness and the coherency. Only then life becomes bliss and happiness follows. Only then it would become obvious that happiness is in reach of all of us, we are just trying to travel too far to have a hold of it, when it’s already hidden in the back yard. Rabindranath Tagore, the ultimate philosopher said

“I traveled miles, for many a year,
I spent a lot in lands afar,
I ’ve gone to see the mountains, the oceans I’ve been to view.
But I haven’t seen with these eyes
Just two steps from my home lies
On a sheaf of paddy grain, a glistening drop of dew.”