What constitutes a
happy life?
Well, am neither the
first to ponder on this thought nor the last. But, this for one, have crossed
the mind of many, when posed with a set of challenges to confront.
Few had radical
thoughts, that eventually led to establishment of religions. Take for example
of Gautam Buddha; sufferings in this world made him renounce the worldly
pleasures and seek the path of divinity, founding Buddhism. Not commenting on
the other monotheistic ones; founders who found and heard God in the most
mysterious of ways. Had they lived in today's world, their views would have had
some Freudian interpretation and most probably would have been recommended to
undergo some kind of therapies - end of religions - boon or bane - a separate
discussion altogether.
But coming to the
core premise: All religions to some extent have codified the means to live a
happy, healthy life devoid of pleasures. Practically speaking, in today's
world, it would rather be an oxymoron.
One unique example
comes to my mind in this regard. The recent wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan
Markle made memorable by a long sermon on love by Rev. Michael Curry. He had an
Apple iPad as his book of sermon that he often referred to; just wondering the
possibilities of the discourse without it. Imagine Jesus with an iPad,
preaching. Or nearer home, Baba Ramdev and his multi-billion dollar empire of
FMCG products that have taken on the heavyweights in the sector and has
literally shaken them up to the core. Does he really need that kind of moolah
to do good in the society? Or is he just being practical about spreading
goodness through his charitable trusts - which by the way am in no way
promoting or questioning (*disclaimer in order to avoid being sued of being
making a certain section of populace angry).
At the end,
happiness is individual centric. While one can radiate and spread happiness,
how well it spreads depends centrally on the individual. Be it giving up
worldly pleasures or playing PS4 for days at a stretch - happiness is at the
core of it. Another example, that of a professional video gamer giving up on
relationship with the world's hottest weather girl has raised eyebrows of many
- but at the end, being happy is the core motto here.
While many have
defined renouncing worldly pleasures as happiness; many have unfortunately
found happiness in less desirable means of drugs, alcohol etc, which not only
has negative impact on self, but also around others. Albeit, it provides a
temporary sense of fragile mistaken happiness, but leads to disastrous
consequences in the end. Does the individual in question care? Well, they don’t
- most of the time… why? As it provides them happiness…
So what is
happiness?
It's relative.
Depends on how one defines it in this material world - denounce all or be in
love with it as two ends of the spectrum… The Happiness Relativity Spectrum, as I would like to call it...
While founders of the religion fall at one end of the spectrum that gave them happiness, more often we come across
people who are in love with money, sex, drugs or alcohol falling at the other
end of the spectrum. There cannot be any defined happiness level for every
individual as each one is unique. It rather has to be an unique self-discovery
that falls somewhere in the middle for most. Be happy and still enjoy the
fruits of labour without any overt concerns. If someone is able to guide
another in that direction to identify the real happiness, would be doing a
better job than all the holy books combined. That would be real happiness at
the end. Humans have invented God. Humans have defined happiness. But for sure,
neither do we understand God, nor have the patience to find real happiness. That
is why, Chris Gardener and the movie, In Pursuit of Happyness remains one of
the classics of all time in that regards.
