"Do not Follow me, I am also Lost" once the famous Krishnamurthy told his followers. Its true even the famous personalities of all times are not really sure of where they are heading in life… what is the mission statement of their life, and they too get lost in the clouds of life…. OR Is it debatable to make life a mission oriented phenomenon or it has just to be lived, celebrated and rejoiced as the great philosophers think? Whatever it may be, one thing is for sure, all of us ordinary or great human beings all long for one common thing that is TRUE HAPPINESS! How do we get that true happiness? What is true happiness anyway? Or does True happiness actually exist? I believe true happiness actually exist. Phillophers and religious gurus say that unhappiness is caused by desire and Selflessness brings Happiness! But what a human we will be without Desire? We wont be human if we don't have desire! If God created man to have human desires and we decide not to have desire are not we going against the creator Himself?
Selflessness….. What does it mean? Does it mean not having any attachment to anything? But if one is not attached wont the world become so fragmented in terms of human relations? Or does it mean giving everything up for others? Does a selfless man anyway have anything? Anything to be given to anyone! Without having attachment or sense of belonging then can we celebrate life? Can we rejoice? When we see a needy anywhere, want to give him something but have nothing materialistic or that matters to his life with us, and we cannot give and are helpless, seeing others sad, can we rejoice life? Can we be happy? I doubt!! Are the phillophers contradicting themselves? They talk of life after death, giving up present comfort for future happiness? Does a future, a life after death exists? If you believe, it EXISTS! Life is what you believe in! What you believe in! What makes you happy now! Do you have the answer? That is the most significant issue for this generation. If you are not happy now how can you be happy tomorrow, cause as they say tomorrow is the resultant effect of your today and today is the resultant effect of your yesterday. True happiness is that happiness that comes today without having to have to sacrifice that of yesterday or tomorrow.
For me the most significant thing is what you believe in this moment, now? Are you happy now? Real-time? If you are not happy now how can you be happy the next moment? Moreover It is not assured that happy moment that is coming now is going to last forever so why not enjoy that moment now when it is there.
But does this mean that we over enjoy today by borrowing some from tomorrow…without taking precautions or planning for tomorrow? Exhaust all your resources of happiness? NO! We need to plan for tomorrow and learn from yesterday even for happiness just like we plan our day-to-day activity.
But how do we know how much of happiness we need when and where? This is exactly why I say one needs to understand oneself? What are ones aspirations, why these aspirations are there? Is this because of certain short term or long term missions that one chose for one's life? I think so. For me like any other normal phenomenon of life…life itself has to be properly planned to have lived to the fullest. And as you all know planning is always mission oriented. Life without any mission will be like a boat made to be sailed but moored at the bay, rusted, the very purpose of its own creation defeated. Mission is the source from where happiness will come. Mission will differ from person to person .as God has created us in our own moulds? But I am sure God has a mission or purpose for all of us in this life. There is a purpose for which all of us either great or ordinary are born? Many of us are lost and are not able to find that mission which God has made us for and we thus die ordinary. A few of us are able to find what we are born for and those few become great people. The potential to be great is there in all of us. The difference is in only being able to discover the purpose for which we are born.…. the art of knowing oneself…oneself which exist in that fulcrum of equilibrium to balance oneself and rest of the world around you.
Happiness in itself of course as normally people feel is relative? But true happiness is not relative but absolute. Happiness could be contagious but it is not necessary that the same cause that brought happiness to someone will bring happiness to another? This is because aspirations and expectations of life are different from person to person. So it is very important for one to know what makes one happy.
It is true that one cannot remain happy throughout….It is the law of nature as there is sunrise, noon and sunset there is happiness , stillness and sadness . There is life and death …there is good and bad.…but then how do we exist….we exist in balance, in equilibrium .. Equilibrium a state of mind and body that brings us happiness ..it has an absoluteness and permanence about it…but many of us today are not clear of our goals in life. Goals those are permanent in terms of generating happiness and of course resources to enable us to carry on life. You must be wondering why I put that HAPPINESS before the RESOURCES. Coz happiness is the end in itself whereas RESOURCES is the means to that ultimate happiness.
One thing that all of us ordinary or great people equally need and long for is true happiness even though the source of happiness differs from person to person. So what makes a person or unmake a person is that source…what is that source…what makes us happy? But then there is also the view that true happiness is when you get happiness without having stolen others happiness. So knowing what makes one happy is really important. This is what I mean by KNOW YOUTSELF.I am also of the view that unless and until one is truly happy one cannot give happiness to others. In order to give anything to anyone first you have got to posses it yourself. It is my experience that true happiness and pure knowledge are the only two things that don't get exhausted even if you give away, rather it multiplies well inside you. The ultimate way to get true happiness is by knowing oneself first and then those with whom one lives and interacts with. This involves understanding even aspirations of others who bears significance to ones life.
To know oneself again one needs to understand all those that has gone into making oneself…like what is the education one has had, what is food one is taking, what is the social and economic environment in which one is existing, what experiences one has had and which in turn brings out the type of aspirations one has built up over a period of time. Even on which part of the planet one is born also affects ones aspirations I guess. Even though all these factors aren't under our control one can try to optimize the same by choosing to live purely in mind, thought and action. It is a well known fact that the Japanese after the defeat of the first two World Wars took a bow that they all will fight a Third World War in which they are not going to lose, that is the war of economics. They have taken a bow and to achieve what they have aspired they would work and work till they reach their goal and ultimately give that sense of achievement and happiness. That is how people say a Japanese employee has literally to be forced to go on a holiday. It is since 1947 that they have taken that bow and you see where they are now today. Because of a conscious bow they have taken ..determined to be achieved. A bow that became the nations aspiration and became the Japanese way of life…made and traditionalized by that society itself in terms of social acceptance and economic welfare. A person, who works very hard, honestly is treated as a good Japanese and higher recognition is given socially for those who does so with unquestionable sincerity and patriosm.
This is a living example to state that if one consciously decides to achieve something sets a goal for oneself with unquestionable determination it is bound to bring success and if that aspiration or goal has been chosen correctly it is bound to give the happiness one is looking for in life.
So to bring individual and integrated happiness to the society let us all set our goals correctly and go all out to achieve it. ……in other words for every problem in life let us find a way or make a way and change that problem into an opportunity.
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