The term “happiness” means different to different people. It is a very broad although a relative term.
“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”-Franklin Roosevelt
“Family and friendships are two of the greatest facilitators of happiness”- John C. Maxwell
“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy? -Albert Einstein
Just like the above, the term “happiness” holds varieties of meanings and importance from person to person.
Happiness is a combination of how satisfied you are with your life and how good you feel on day to day basis. So it is like as long as you feel satisfied with your life and feel good about it, your happiness will stay with you isn’t it?
If so, a question arises in our mind, “how long can happiness last?”
Are the circumstances that make us feel satisfied totally in our control? The answer is No. Let’s think about few situations below:-
- If we feel that we can derive happiness by watching a movie, as soon as the movie is over, the happiness is also over. If we feel that this particular cuisine will keep me happy, and it does but soon as we have finished eating that happiness doesn’t last long, does it?
- The relationships of people that we are into, also stays only until that person is behaving nicely with us or until that person is living. So there are limitations for happiness in it too.
- After doing a lot of shopping for clothes, accessories or anything that we wanted to buy, it gives a little satisfaction that we possess that particular thing now but soon as we begin to use it and it gets a bit older or out of fashion, it doesn’t give the same amount of happiness to us.
- If we think about our own body, until we are healthy and fit, we are happy and the moment we become sick, the happiness is replaced with lot of pain and discomfort.
- In day to day life too, we are happy if we have favorable situations around us and the moment we have to make some adjustment amidst difficult circumstances, our attitude changes and the joy fleas away.
So, when one wants to derive happiness from temporary things, that happiness is also temporary. Temporary happiness is called pleasure. Permanent Happiness is bliss, which is true nature of a being. Permanent happiness is loving the formless, temporary happiness is loving the form and name (which is ever changing).
If we want to derive permanent happiness, we need to look for a permanent source of happiness and bliss. What can that be? Knowing who we are, is the permanent source of happiness. We are a Soul and it is immortal, neither does it take birth and nor does it die. When one takes birth he brings along everything that one has to go through-how many worldly pleasures will one enjoy and how many pains one has to undergo is pre decided according to past life karmas! So there is no need to think or worry about it. All one needs to do is to find our own real Self and come out of the vicious cycle of temporary happiness followed by suffering and experience true bliss of the Self.