true happiness

Subject: True Happines ACTION PLAN TO ATTAIN TRUE HAPPINESSMost of us have a mistaken notion about happiness. Weequate it with fun and pleasure. Pleasure comes out ofwhat we do and happiness is derived from what we havedone. Fun is what we experience during an act, whilehappiness is what we experience after an act. It is adeeper, more abiding emotion. Pleasure and funhappiness and we finite is infinite. Eating, sleeping,mating and all other fun –filled life like watching atennis match, attending a party in a five-star hotel,traveling in an expensive car may be considered aspleasure and cannot be viewed as a moment ofhappiness. The fun activities referred to above maybring us certain amount of relaxation and make us toforget our pressing problems of life but will neverbring us the true happiness. Many are under theimpression that cine stars are the happiest persons onearth as they can command whatever the luxury theywant. But the fact is that these very people arevictims of depression, alcoholism, drug addictiondivorces and even suicides. Their life is a standingtestimony to prove that what they ‘seem to enjoy’ inlife do not bring real happiness.There are four dimensions of happiness; (A) CreativeActivity (b) Inter-Personal relationship (c) CosmicConsciousness (d) Self –Mastery.(A) CREATIVE ACIVITY: The more we are active,producing tangible results that are useful to thesociety, the greater is the chances for our happiness.When an author writes a book, he derives the greatesthappiness. The monetary reward that he gets in theform of royalty is a pittance when compared to thereal joy of creation. A person who enjoys what he doesis showing the way for true happiness. All those whoattained it and fame are those who concentrated incontributing something useful to the society withoutbothering for monetary returns. They blossom forthinto geniuses in the intimate analysis byconcentrating their total attention in creation. Whenwe create something new, we become like God, who isthe creator of the whole universe. It is not areceiving that we are happy but in giving andcontributing. In yogic parlance, it is stated that aperson who is happy with his work is a karma Yogi.(b) INTER-PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP: When a person has nohatred, jealousy, sentiment, anger, irritation,malice, and not even misunderstanding towards anybody,who is always full of love and affection for everybody is a happy person in this world. Happiness is apositive feeling, which can be shown without anyconsideration. If a person shows love and affectiontowards another person with a view to deriving anybenefit, then is may amount to business and cannot getthe true happiness. It is an attitude of the mind,which can be consciously developed over a period. Whenthe mind reaches a stage of purity of love, affection,sympathy, consideration, empathy, concern, it isfilled with ever flowing happiness and joy. Such aperson is called a Bhakthi yogi.© COSMIS-CONSCIOUSNESS: The world is filled withmysteries and wonders. Do we know for certain why wewere born in a particular place and to certainparents? When do we die? In a train accident many dieand a few escape without any hurt. Can we fathom thereason for the death of so many in such an accident?Some children are born mentally retarded. Why is itso? There are innumerable situations like that forwhich we have no answer. Very recently, many peopledied of earthquake in Maharastra States. Why shouldits happen to such poor and innocent people? What havethey done to deserve such a punishment? Many thingsthat happen like that cannot be explained throughlogical reasoning. We have to simply accept them asthe natural phenomenon. If we worry over such thingsfor which we have no control, we shall be tormentedwith fear and agony. We won’t be able to be happy.Accepting the inevitable is one of the dimensions ofhappiness. Further, do you realize the magnitude ofthe universe? How big is it? There are trillions andtrillions of suns and stars. In the cosmic design, themother earth is a tiny tot. If the earth itself is atiny tot, how big is India and how big are we in thecosmic design? When we develop this kind of cosmicconsciousness, what we get in life is the developmentof the virtue called humility. The more we are humble,the greater is the possibility to attain truehappiness. Saints and seers are the happiest personsin this world as they have developed the sterlingquality of humility. One who has understood themysterious phenomenon of this universe is called aJnana Yogi.(d) SELF-MASTERY: The lasts dimension of happiness isderived from self-mastery. A person who is capable ofcontrolling his body, mind and emotions is said to betruly happy. People who fall easy prey to all sorts ofundesirable habits, like smoking, drinking, drugaddictions are not only wasting their money but becomevictims to a variety of diseases. The more we are ableto have mastery over our self; the possibility ofattaining happiness is greater. Development ofsterling qualities like, purity, honesty, sincerity,loyalty, truthfulness, generosity, confidence,courage, require self-mastery. One who has developedthese virtues could be considered as truly a happyperson. Such a person is a king (‘Raja”) of kings.0 InYogic language he is a Raja Yogi.Happiness is a positive state of the mind, which canbe obtained, paradoxically through sacrifice,suffering and strenuous labor and not in wallowing inluxury and indulging in all kinds of unwantedpleasures. In the ultimate \analysis, Pleasures, maybring suffering, whereas, suffering and sacrifice fora noble cause will crown one with glory and happiness.