In search of happiness

Apr 16, 2010, 12.00am IST
ANUP TANEJA.

All the misery we experience can be attributed to our failure to understand that true happiness can be attained only when one is able to harmonise with the best thing in him, with the Supreme Divinity, and not with the brute. Happiness constantly eludes one who is dominated by base instincts and in the process suppressing the inner voice of conscience.


“ We are all conscious that there is another inside of us; that there accompanies us through life a divine, silent messenger---that higher, better self which speaks from the depths of our nature and which gives its consent, its ‘Amen’, to every right action and condemns every wrong one,” wrote Marden. Men and women in all times have tried to attain happiness by ignoring their conscience that keeps reviewing all their good and bad actions on a constant basis. Therefore all efforts to buy its approval; to silence its voice in nervous excitement; to drown it in pleasure, with intoxicating substances are bound to go in vain.


The Supreme Being created us along the lines of truth and justice; therefore in order to gain true happiness it is imperative that we do not violate the laws that constitute the very core of our existence. So long as we continue to indulge in negative practices, for example, to earn money through unlawful means -- by accepting bribe or exploiting others---so long as our aspiration is to amass wealth by any possible means, we can never attain to true happiness, simply because we have deviated from the path of righteousness.


The thought that we can indulge in corrupt practices and then beg the Lord’s forgiveness through prayer or by bathing in a holy river; the thought that we can do wrong and be forgiven without atoning for wrong actions, has done more harm than good. He who has a clear conscience, leads a clean life, and is able to obliterate the negative traits of selfishness, jealousy, envy, and hatred from the mind.


We tend to make happiness too complicated an affair. Most people are governed by the understanding that happiness can be derived by doing something on a grand scale; from making a big fortune; and from ostentatious display of wealth with the purpose of showing off one’s affluence and high status in society. But happiness can be attained from the simplest and most unpretentious things. Pleasure can never be forced; it must come in a natural way, from uncomplicated living.


One often hears the statement: “He has the money, but cannot enjoy it.”


Helping colleagues and friends without expecting anything in return; acts of kindness towards animals; conducting oneself with utmost humility; performance of one’s duties with utmost sincerity; protecting the gifts bestowed upon us by bountiful nature; living in a spirit of togetherness with fellow beings---all these are simple things, yet they are what constitute true happiness. And this is what leads us to bliss that lies within reach if only we knew how to access it.

(The writer is an editor with the Indian Council of Historical Research.)