[Y-Indology] Is happiness non-Indian ?

[Guest guest]

On Sat, 5 Oct 2002, V.C.Vijayaraghavan wrote:

 

> Is happiness as it understood now i.e. a man being happy at his son

> getting a well paynig job, or a connoiseur of wine tasting something

> an utterly new brew or a woman winning a lottery of a million pounds

> or a child getting an icecream, are these kind of human experiences

> don't come under the rubric of 'happiness' in ancient literature in

> India.

 

I always thought that the 'debasement' of Sanskrit philosophical terms in

kaavyam and other non-philosophical Sanskrit literature, where nirvaaNa

appears often to mean no more than a common, positive feeling of

gratification and happiness, shows that a concept of happiness that we

moderns can understand existed among the creators of Sanskrit literature,

along with the philosophical concept of the bliss of extinction, a concept

that does seem to have been as incomprehensible to some kavis as it is to

many of us.

 

P. Ernest