The Key to Happiness

[Guest guest]

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."

 

Note: This is a speech that I gave few years back in a Toastmasters

Club Meeting.