Its a simple thing : ‘Everyone wants happiness‘. The more I think about it, I realize that the least common denominator of the wants of every single person is ‘happiness’. I try to extend that argument and say ‘the unlimited list of things we want is not really what we want, but really the means to the real want ‘happiness’.
It made sense to me…every want is a means to that one end want : happiness. So it appears as if that all we want is the happiness itself but are fooling ourselves by wanting many other worldly things hoping the pleasure we would feel from getting whatever we want would give that happiness. The reality is that the bottom of that list grows faster than the top and the all pleasures fail to give lasting happiness.
But, wait a minute? happiness is an abstract term and there will be at least 5 billion definitions for it…right? Nope, thats the point…the 5 billion definitions are simply the statement of the means to that one happiness.
Alright, I know I am driving everyone crazy here! What the heck is happiness then? In one definition, it is a transient state of mind! Note there is not one but three keywords here: transient, state, mind. Transient state because it is never permanant. If we all will ever be permantly happy, we all will be holiest of holy saints, who they say once existed! It is a state of mind because it is inside us and not ouside. Hindu philosophy says Brahma purposefully hid happiness at the deep core of our mind, the last place and most difficult place to find it!
When we search outside there are zillion things to find and we would need a million lives to finish that search. Lets say, we all agree with that principle and start searching inside. We would soon realize that there is not much inside to search. Of course, you say. I think we would soon reach a point where we might finally realize happiness is nothing more nothing less than emptiness!
True laughter is a way for true happiness. Art of Living’s Ravi Shankar says “Just laugh, smile. Life has no purpose, no mission. It is a game. It’s a play. Life has no message. Life itself is an expression of joy. There is nothing you have to do. Every- thing is being done by the Big Mind.”
OK! now go watch “Rang De Basanti” 🙂
