When i was five years old, my mother always told me happiness is the key to life. When i went to school, they asked me what i wanted to be when i grew up. I wrote down”HAPPY”. They told me i didn’t understand the assignment and i told them they didn’t understand life.
This is one of the mails doing rounds. I liked it and thought would share it here. And besides it has got connection to today’s post.
How can we define happiness? Happiness is to become a mother or father. Happiness is to become a topper in education. Happiness is getting admission into a top-notch institution. Happiness is becoming the CEO of a Fortune 500 firm. Happiness is holding your new-born baby. Happiness is seeing your baby crawl, walk, talk, eat, and play. We can write many things to this happiness-wish list. But wait a minute !!! I am sure all of you must have gone through at least one of these at a given point in time of your life. Think about that situation now. Does it give the same joy and happiness it gave then? Honestly no. The feeling at that moment is very elated but 5 years down the line it is not that elated. Just like a baby was born to you five years back – you were happy, very happy. But that happiness now fails to have that intensity of the yesteryear.
What is your favorite dish? Cakes, chocolates, ice-creams, chinese dishes, italian pizzas, macaronis ?? Or is it peanuts? Take any of your favorite dish and savor it when hungry. It is so satisfying and gives such pleasure to us. But eat it after the stomach is full. Take more and you will upset your stomach. The thing which initially gave us pleasure has the potential to give misery also. Why is it that things of this world do not give lasting pleasure to us? This material world is temporary but real declares the eastern scriptures. So by logical deduction, anything of this world should also be temporary, just like anything inside a refrigerator is cold. Radhanath Swami explains that if we chase these temporary things of this temporary world, our happiness will also be temporary. Although it is real, it is temporary. And we want everything to last. Hence the problem.
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet. ~James Openheim
What does this mean? It means we do not have to chase happiness. Happiness is within us. When we find peace in the self, happiness manifests and that lasts and it is ever-increasing. Imagine a happiness which never abates and increases moment by moment. We are tiny sparks of the real sun – The Supreme Lord. When we understand this and when we act in accordance with that relationship, then our activities become a source of bliss. But Radhanath Swami goes further and says,”Happiness held is the seed; happiness shared is the flower”. So we should distribute that peace to others which we have found in ourselves. And we will not be short of customers, since everyone in this world is looking for happiness, but at the wrong place. “According to our capacity, our abilities, our intelligence, we should live for the welfare of others”, informs Radhanath Swami. Radhanath Swami gives examples that when we have wealth, we should use it for helping other living beings in devotion to GOD. Radhanath Swami continues that if we have a good body, we should use it under the direction of a realized person to elevate others in devotion to GOD. This is the greatest service to GOD and the ancient scriptures of east declare that this is the only platform for peace. Radhanath Swami nails it by saying that lasting peace is required for lasting happiness.