Earlier we talked about some simple tips like smiling, counting your blessings, stopping judgments, stopping comparison, learning to listen more than talking, giving up negativity etc. When you analyse carefully, these are all manifestations of some or the other attribute of the mind. In other words these are all reflective reactions of particular thought patterns. Take for instance smiling. When do you smile? When you are cheerful, pleased with your self, happy or contented. You think you are happy because things happened the way you wanted. It may be achieving some success or acquiring some object, power, position or relationship. You attribute attaining happiness to some external factor, may it be an object, person or a place. If that is true then you should remain happy for the rest of your life just with that same object, power, position or person. Does it happen? NO. Soon you are chasing another goal for your happiness, then another and so on. There is no end to it.
All of us want to be happy and that too permanently. So we have to rely on a source that can provide Happiness at all times in all situations – a source that is permanent, which is not affected by any external factor and that which is available to you all through your life without any limitation.
Most people acknowledge that they don’t always feel happy. Oh, yes! Getting the job, buying a car, getting admission into a top rated school or losing weight feels great for a while. But you find that that the job means longer working hours or that the car guzzles petrol and needs maintenance, or your friends are jealous and that your life hasn’t been transformed by losing weight. You are again weighed down by a sense of lack. No matter how well life turns out, nothing seems quite enough. Others seem to have more, or desires for fulfillment keep arising. If nothing else, you fear for the future. What if something happens to you or your loved ones? Many are content to accept this mixed bag of happiness and sorrow as their lot.
Happiness is the unquenchable thirst and an insatiable hunger of all humans. Happiness is what all of us seek and long for. According to an old Hindu legend, there was a time when all men were happy, but they misused happiness. So Brahma, the creator decided to take it away and hide it where no one could possibly find it. There was a long discussion as to where to hide it and there were many suggestions like burying it deep in the earth and sinking it deep into the ocean. But it appeared that there was no place that man could not reach. Finally Brahma said, "We will hide it deep down in man himself, for he will never think of looking for it there." And man goes looking for Happiness in all unlikely places, circumstances or people, neglecting to look within!
We will methodically go through the simple steps for the simple process of unearthing that treasure from within. Yes. It is simple, if you are willing and willful.
Happily yours,
