The Pursuit of Happiness

In the words of Leo Calvin Rosten, the famous Russian writer, "The purpose of life is not to be happy, but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all." Yes, we do feel good when we are the most productive, it kind of gives one satisfaction of being useful. Does that translate into happiness? May be for some it does, while others seek beyond productive as that may only satisfy their urge to do something but not necessarily make them feel the bliss of happiness. We all persevere, work hard and try to do all the right things to achieve happiness. Why it seems so elusive? Human mind has been digging itself to find happiness. It has been a thought provoking question in my mind. What can make one happy. So after some introspect, following is what comes to my mind, I may be wrong or right as I do not think there is single answer that can make everyone happy as this definition can vary from one individual to another. 

Question comes to my mind that do we know of anyone on this earth who is born and never experienced any sorrow or pain or suffering or sadness. The one who can say that his life has been full of joy, full of happiness, full of bliss. At least I am not aware of any one single individual on earth who has not had at some time or another some type of pain or suffering or grief or sorrow. As in Bhagwat Geeta, Lord Krishna said: “O Arjuna, all these experiences brought about by the contact of one or other of the five senses with their respective sense objects, these experiences are ultimately the source of sorrow. There is no real happiness in these sense contacts and sense experiences. They are but mere momentary sensations afterwards giving you pain.” As we know from this that happiness is a pleasant sensation and unhappiness is an unpleasant sensation experienced by the embodied soul through the five mortal senses, mind and  intellect. According to Hindu philosophy, all pain and sufferings that we experience as human beings are caused because of our attachment to desires and wants. More we are attached to expectations, wants, desires and other emotions, more suffering and pain we experience. We create these sufferings ourselves. They arise in us due to our own fault due to our attachment for worldly objects that cause us to experience love and hate, anger and passion, fear, worry, tension, anxiety, jealousy, envy, greed, frustration, disappointment and disillusionment. The pain of separation, the joy of love and all such emotions are caused as we seek the fulfillment of our desires and wants. Happiness or bliss can happen if we devoid of these emotions.

We may accept the cause as explained by this philosophy, however, being mortals, staying detached from these emotions is not easy or achievable if not impossible.Let us explore this further to understand what type of happiness are, I think there are two types of happiness; worldly happiness and spiritual happiness. The worldly happiness can be obtained in this world, whereas, the spiritual happiness is unrelated to an object. Since spiritual happiness is self-attained, it is considered the best type of happiness. Spiritual happiness is superior to worldly happiness and that in the subtle worlds because it is permanent and unrelated to any kind of unhappiness. This spiritual happiness is the ultimate. Such unparalleled happiness is termed as Moksha. 

Each one of us has experienced happiness at sometime or the other. Since the experience is obtained through our five senses, mind and intellect one can comprehend its definition. Just the opposite to this, there is Bliss that we may not be aware as many of us are not even aware that there may be something to experience beyond the five senses, so most people find it difficult to understand the meaning of Bliss. Just as one blind since birth will find it difficult to accept the fact that the world is visible no matter how hard one tries to explain it, so also it is difficult to explain the meaning of Bliss. It cannot be expressed in words but has to be experienced.