Contentment, Key to Man's Happiness:

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Contentment, Key to Man's Happiness: (An Article from the Religious Section

of The Hindu taken with permission: "Copyrights 2000 The Hindu & Tribeca

Internet Initiatives Inc.")

 

Desire is the motive for all human actions. Legitimate desires which do not

transgress Dharm have scriptural sanction but human nature is such that

fulfilment is rare in worldly life. As soon as one desire is fulfilled

another raises its head and life thus becomes a perennial strife without

contentment at any stage. In fact, one finds to one's dismay that it is not

possible to satiate one's endless desires.

 

This must lead a right-thinking person to analyse the reason why contentment

is so elusive. All desires are the expressions of one basic desire, i.e., the

feeling of incompleteness or unhappiness about the present situation.

According to Vedant it is the finite ``I'', the ego, which seeks to become

complete, the infinite, but this is not possible. One can easily

understand that the whole approach is illogical because any number of finite

additions cannot become the infinite. Out of ignorance man tries to find

happiness by fulfilling his desires as and when they arise with the hope of

realising infinite bliss. This basic ignorance will become apparent only when

one takes to spiritual life and scriptural study.

 

Desire is not the only weakness of man but anger also, which makes a person

violent. Violence in any form is sinful and spiritually retrograde. Desire

and anger make a person extroverted and violent; hence he becomes unfit to

follow the spiritual path. Though they appear to be different, desire and

anger were not separate entities but two sides of the same coin, said Swami

Paramarthananda in his lecture on the Bhagavad Gita. Frustrated desire turns

into anger and fulfilled ones lead to greed.

 

How does one tackle this situation? Lord Krishna points out how desires will

lead to the loss of discrimination, ``As a flame is covered by smoke, mirror

by dirt, and embroyo by the amnion, so is knowledge covered by desire.''

There is no need to emphasise the importance of discrimination in day-to-day

life. If one allows desires to blind one's rational thinking, all judgments

and actions will be affected. The examples given in this verse in the Gita

is further helpful in understanding how the problem can be resolved. First

is the possibility of assessing the situation rationally, considering its

practicality, if it is not possible to renounce the desire. Another method

of approach will be to satiate the desire to find out whether one derives

contentment and eventually try to grow out of it. In some cases as in the

case of the growing foetus, the only recourse will be to wait patiently

because only with time can one hope to expect a change in attitude.