Article: The Key to Happiness
Posted By Ram V Chandran (chandran.burke@juno.com)
Tue, 12 Aug 1997 10:14:46 -0400
THE KEY TO HAPPINESS
Happiness is the universal aim of life. Happiness depends on the
modes that dominate our nature. When we were kids, we thought that we
could buy happiness in the toy stores. Now we are grown up kids and we
seek wealth, power and pride to get our happiness. We focus our
attention on illusionary happiness through material objects. The more
illusionary happiness we get, we are eager to venture for more!
Nevertheless, at the end, we get to a decisive point and reach the dead
end street of pain and misery. We fall into this vicious endless loop of
happiness and disappointment and forget our true nature! The greatest
obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness - Fontanelle
(1657-1757).
Our real problem is that we don't know what is true happiness?
True happiness is not a result from human action. Results are transitory
where as happiness is omnipresent and can neither be created nor be
destroyed. Understanding one's own SELF realizes true happiness. True
happiness is free from sufferings and disappointments! The key to real
happiness is within and we always look for the key in others' pockets.
True happiness is the human nature. True happiness requires that we see
our-self in all beings and all beings in our-self. The key to true
happiness is to keep positive thoughts within and throw the negatives
once for all. Any appearance of pain is an illusion which will disappear
and eternal joy and freedom will emerge and sustain.
Ego is a hindrance to true happiness and it brings misery and
depression. A small story can illustrate this point. Once a soccer ball
complained to Swami Vivekananda that all were kicking in the field and
wants to be free! Vivekananda told the soccer ball that the problem is
the AIR and it should remove the air completely. When we remove our ego,
no one can kick or insult! We can liberate ourselves from unpleasantness
and misery by discarding EGO! The key to true happiness is to abandon our
EGO! Colton (1780-1832) points out, "There is this difference between
happiness and wisdom that he that thinks himself the happiest man really
is so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest
fool."
True happiness implies peace. Peace requires freedom from
conflicts and conflict arises with plurality. Subjective beliefs and
notions of the world cause plurality around us. Such notions will unplug
our mouth and plug our mind and ears! We start our conversation by
opening our mouth and closing our mind and ears. Such conversations
inevitably lead into intense arguments. The moment prejudice gets in,
patience evaporates, peace gets disturbed and conflict takes over! We
can remove plurality by freeing our mind from prejudiced notions. The
key to true happiness is to eliminate subjective beliefs and perceptions
on others. Happiness will enter when we open our eyes, ears and mind.
True happiness will sustain if we accept the world as it is. We
can enjoy the world and realize true happiness if we prepare to change
our attitude. Mahatma Gandhi once said that we are the only change that
we wish to see in the world. The key to true happiness always comes when
we change our attitude to life. We can save our-self from many hard
falls by refraining from jumping to conclusions. Anyone who thinks he
knows all the answers, isn't quite up-to-date on questions. A minute of
keeping our mouth closed is worth an hour of explanation. The problem
that most of us face is not the presence of mind, but only the absence of
thought. Ann Landers points out that no one is ever completely
worthless; they can always serve as a bad example. Goethe (1749-1832)
once said: "We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves." The Upanishads
outline the following beautiful path for our daily life: "Life is a
bridge, enjoy while crossing but don't try to build a castle on it." The
quotation from Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804- 1864) beautifully summarizes
happiness: "Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always
beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon
you."
