Pursuit of Happiness

Ancient wisdom, modern science and simple daily habits that shape happiness — why attitude often matters more than possessions

As we stand in the early period of the ‘New Year’, it is worthwhile to pause and introspect about our goals in the past and our achievements thereof. Many of us had different goals but essentially, they meant ‘happiness’. Everyone wanted to be happy and for that they set different resolutions. Why different resolutions and different routes to achieve one common goal of happiness? Whether happiness has many denominations earned on the multiple perceptions and individual needs? The fact remains that we all want to be happy but probably we do not know what the happiness is.

For a hungry person, food gives happiness. For a poor, money gives happiness. For a blind, restoration of vision gives happiness. There is an infinite number of needs and accordingly there are infinite ways of their fulfilments and an infinite taste of happiness. This is something like the story of ‘seven blind men and an elephant’. The seven blind men chanced to touch the different parts of the body of an elephant and as per their individual touch and perceptions, they concluded that an elephant is as per their respective touch-perceptions.

None of them had touched the entire body of the elephant and so they could not perceive about the true shape of an elephant. In the similar way, as we have part perceptions of happiness, we have part understandings of happiness. We remain ignorant about happiness totally or to say the ‘true happiness’

Views on happiness vary but generally it is connected to positive emotions, life satisfaction combining fleeting pleasures or deeper purpose objectives. There is no single meaning definition, but happiness involves both feeling good and loving a life of meaning and purpose often found through self discovery, virtue, connection and engagement.

Psychological perspectives of happiness are:

• Pleasant life - Experiencing positive emotions like joy, comfort and gratitude.
• Engaged life - Getting lost in activities that use your skills, creating a state of flow.
• Meaningful life - Connecting to something larger than yourself, like family, community or a cause.

The common themes and factors of happiness are:

• Relationships - Strong social connections are crucial.
• Purpose - Having meaningful goals and a sense of direction.
• Internal state - Happiness is an inner state, not just external circumstances.
• Actions - It is cultivated through choices like practicing gratitude and helping others.

The philosophers from ancient time have been debating on the issue of ‘happiness’. Western and Eastern philosophers think differently. The Indian view on happiness is multifaceted. It emphasises that true happiness comes from within, through spiritual realisation, self-control and detachment from material desires. External achievements may not have much significance in this view.

The core principles of happiness set by the ancient Indian philosophy are:

• Inner source - Happiness is not found in external objects or weak but arises from consciousness, though desires and fears can obscure it.
• Bliss (Anand) - The ultimate state of profound happiness relates to self-realisation and union with the ultimately reality
• Detachment - Self-control and detachment from worldly things are essential to avoid agitation and achieve lasting peace.
• Dharma and duty - Fulfilling righteous duties acting with altruism and considering the needs of others contribute significantly to well-being.

The Indian ancient view is fully reflected in Bhagavad Gita when Lord Krishna says, “One whose happiness is within, whose delight is within, and whose light is within, that Yogi attains eternal bliss.”

The modern time Indian view comes from Mahatma Gandhi, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony”. According to Swami Vivekananda: happiness belongs to him who knows this oneness, who knows he is one with this universe. Happiness is not the destination, but it is the path as per Lord Buddha.

Some of the old and famous western philoso phers have said on happiness as under:

• Socrates / Plato - Happiness comes from a well-ordered soul, knowing oneself and living morally not pleasure of wealth.
• Aristotle - The ultimate goal of life, achieved by living according to reason and developing virtues through simple pleasures, friendship and living wisely, not wild indulgence.
• Epicurus - Happiness is freedom from fear and pain, achieved through simple pleasure, friendship and living wisely, not wild indulgence.
• J.S. Mill - Happiness is maximising pleasure and minimising pain, got the greatest number but includes higher intellectual pleasures over lower physical ones.

"Happiness is not a ready-made thing. It comes from within. It comes from our own actions. True happiness is a state of mind and the same can be achieved by training our mind"

Happiness, though sought by everybody in all corners of the world, is a complex subject. We had some glimpse on the views of philosophers and some wise men in this short article on what they mean about happiness. In simple words and in common parlance, an effort is now being made to understand this complex subject. Today, when most of the people are unhappy, happiness may mean the absence of ‘unhappiness’ to bring happiness— unhappiness occurs as our expectation does not get fulfiled. This fact has been confirmed in Bhagavad Gita as Lord Krishna says "Do your work and do not expect for the fruit". We become unhappy when fruit does not come despite our hard work and so kill its genesis, and stop thinking about fruit. We should do our work and continue doing so as that is the only thing, which we can do. In many cases, we become unhappy, as we keep worrying about the pleasure of having things which we have.

This is our self-made unhappiness and so to become happy, we must change our attitude and our thinking process. Sometimes, we become unhappy even after our wants are fulfiled, and this is due to our self-generated ‘evil’ and this is ‘jealousy’. We keep comparing ourselves with others and we become jealous, if others, particularly our known ones, have better things than us or they are in better positions than our positions. This jealousy is a psychological disease that makes us unhappy. So, to remain happy, we have to put a stop on jealousy.

Sometimes, we find that God has been really kind to us, that we have everything that we wanted, but still, we become unhappy due to some bad health condition. To avoid this uncalled for unhappiness, we have to compare our health situation with the situation of many others, who are in the worse situation than us. We have to develop the art of good living, if physically we are in a bad condition. Just look at the para Olympians who excel even in the field of sport despite being handicapped. Sometimes, we become unhappy, due to disconnect between our ability and our ambition. To illustrate, we cannot become a singer, despite our ambition, if we do not have the basic trait of being a singer. So, to remain happy, we must choose our path after due introspection and understanding our skill and ability.

Happiness is not a ready-made thing. It comes from within. It comes from our own actions. True happiness is a state of mind, and the same can be achieved by training our mind. Harvard University has studied happiness for well over 80 years by following hundreds of people from all over the world and have found that close relationships with family and friends are the key to happiness. Let our smile change the world and not the world should be allowed to change our smile.

Every morning is a fresh start and so wake up with a grateful heart. We should know to harvest happiness as joy can be found in even little things. A hot cup of coffee in cold winter can give us immense happiness. We all know that a thing of beauty is joy, and so we should always find to live with nature. The other good way to become happy is to give happiness to others. “The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer somebody else up,” said Mark Twain.

Positive thinking is a good source of happiness. Being happy does not mean that everything is perfect. It means that we have decided to look beyond the imperfections. Enjoyable sunshine will come later but meanwhile we should enjoy the rains. We should discard fear to remain happy as fear is only a presumption for a bad tomorrow, but then why should we spoil our today. There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. True happiness is an acceptance of life given to us with its mystery.

Happiness is the product of our thinking process and our will power. Anything or everything is achievable with good work and will power. There is nothing to worry to see dreams, but wrongs happen if dreams are not supplemented with hard work. We should remember the saying of Winston Churchill, “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Failures are temporary incidents and that should not ruin our happiness

The most important thing is to enjoy our life. All that matters is to be happy. Happiness is a self-made product at home, and we should create it everyday. “Happiness is not a goal. It is a by-product of a life well lived,” said Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady of the US.

• Never hate
• Don’t worry
• Live simply
• Expect little
• Give a lot
• Harm none
• Always smile