This happened few months back. In our household, tea time is the quality family time. Tea brings people together in our home. I was just getting my cup of tea and TV was running in the background where a guy was talking about happiness. Vaguely, he was saying he is doing something that makes him happy.
So spontaneously, I asked my daughter,
Hey Jhingu “what makes you happy?”
She replied “Whatttt…..?”
She just left it at that! So I asked again, “Tell me, what makes you happy?” She replied with quite an embrassing tone,
“Whattt..What r u talking about Dedduu”?
She just smiled and ended the conversation. She did not know the answer. I could see on her face that she felt little disappointed about herself not knowing the answer to my question.
Imagine if you don’t know the word happiness! You have no concept of happiness.
Can you be happy without knowing anything about happiness?
If you want to be happy, is it safe to assume that there is something you are unhappy about ? Would desire to be happy arise if there is no trace of unhappiness or discontent left in you?
There are 7 billion people on the planet. If you ask each one of them,
“What do you want in life?”
Each will probably give you a different answer.
House….s
Car….s
Fame..
Holiday…
Sex…
Power…
Relationship…s
Promotion…s
Enlightenment….
Whatever…..
It can be anything.
Anything that can be pursued.
You will get 7 billion different answers.
But if you ask each of them,
“Why do you want what you want”?
The answer will probably be the same—
“So that I can be happy”.
Means are different, destination is the same. The world will give you means. But can you reach the destination without the means? Can you bypass the means and still be happy?
Often,
You are happy “about”
You are happy “with”
You are happy “to“
You are happy “if”
You are happy “when”…
The idea of happiness is always attached to “something”.
And that “something” is always changing. So if the means is constantly changing, how can you ever arrive at the destination? How can you ever be happy? You will always remain in illusion and feel unfulfilled.
When you strip yourself naked of any concept or belief or idea about happiness,
That which remains is – Happiness.
You are happy. Truly.
No strings attached.
There is no effort to be happy.
If knowledge about happiness is the indicator of the level of happiness, children will be miserable creatures and adults will be happiest! However, it is quite obvious to me that reality is exactly opposite!
You do not need to know or have anything to be happy. But you always need something to be sad about.
Knowledge of happiness is not the prerequisite of happiness.
And that is why – The child is effortlessly happy without knowing anything about happiness.
