I have
often been compelled to think that ‘happiness’ is a disease that most of us
suffer from. The virus of this disease may enter our minds in early childhood
when we are told, “Do this, otherwise you will be unhappy.” Perhaps, we and the
thought of ‘unhappiness’, grow together. A simple thought that ‘happiness’ is a
state of mind that keeps our body, mind and soul in a good ready-to use
condition may be considered as being free from all doubts and confusions.
Hence, our concern for ‘happiness’ may be considered as being unquestionable.
Are there things that we, knowingly or unknowingly, do to
disturb the state of mind that keeps the entirety of our body-mind complex in a
naturally active state? I think we constantly push ourselves to do all such
things which, according to our perception, make us happy; and, our perception
is formed on the basis of what we have been lead to believe in. I do not
recollect any moments of unhappiness due the way I lived with my family fifty
years ago. We had very little of what is presently considered as the minimum
required for making one happy. I was often scolded for things I never did, my
parents did not arrange everything that I thought I needed, I miserably flopped
in all seasonal cultural programmes organized in my school, I did not perform
well in each and every the examinations that I took, I was almost at the bottom
of my class in outdoor games and I could not do many things that others
expected me to do. No doubt, I felt bad about many things, but I was always as
happy as anybody else was. As against this, I find that in present times many
children are unhappy due to multiple reasons; and what is more important is
that their parents are extremely concerned about their unhappiness. I also find
that unhappiness of the parents greatly and dangerously enhances the
unhappiness in the children.
In my childhood no one taught me a lesson or two on unhappiness,
no one defined the happiness or provided me with a broken down account of what
all causes unhappiness of the mind. I am one of the fortunate ones who learned
about unhappiness firsthand through my own experience. And, what I have learned
is; for me, unhappiness had never been due
the painful situations that I
was subjected to, it had always been due
to the gloomy faces I had to see of those who had come to sympathize with me or
mourn for what I had lost.
My firm opinion is that one should not educate himself about
‘unhappiness’. More educated one is in the mattes of unhappiness; the unhappier
would he be in his life. I am also of the opinion that one must keep himself
away from all kinds of “Unhappiness Consultants”; for, if one does that he would
receive more education on unhappiness and a natural energetic state of mind
would become a distant dream for him.
Happiness and unhappiness, if not unreal, are grossly
defective truths. What one believes to be a happy situation at one moment, may turn
out to be disaster at another, and vice versa. If we can’t rely on any kind of
opinion that we may form about happiness or unhappiness, how can we educate
ourselves about them?
PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA
[The writer of this blog is also the author of “Mahatma A
Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” and “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”.]
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