HAPPINESS
Happiness is a relative term.
It has no absolute definition.
Some of its synonyms are: cheerfulness, lightheartedness, joyfulness,
blitheness, carefreeness, gladness, exuberance and blissfulness.
Even the secrets and sources of an individual’s happiness are
too many and too different. In fact, in
this respect one man’s meat is another man’s poison.
English divine and Archbishop of Canterbury
John Tillotson (1630-1694) rightly said man courts happiness in a thousand
ways; and the faster he follows it the swifter it flies from him. Almost
everything promiseth happiness to us at a distance, but when we come nearer,
either we fall short of it, or it falls short of our expectation; and it is
hard to say which of these is the greatest disappointment.
Again, there are religious people
whose secret of happiness lies in renunciation.
Here is one very simple secret of happiness of an English
writer Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894): “ Wealth I ask not, hope nor love,
nor a friend to know me; all I ask, the heavens above, and the road below.”
The viewpoint of an English
essayist, Joseph Addison (1672-1719) is also worth knowing. According to him
true happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; It rises,
in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self; and in the next, from the
friendship and conversation of a few select companions; it loves shades and
solitude, and naturally haunts groves and fountains, fields and meadows, In
short, it feels everything it wants within itself, and receives no addition
from multitudes of witnesses and spectators. On the contrary, false happiness loves
to be in a crowd, and to draw the eyes of the world upon her. She does not
receive satisfaction from the applauses which she gives herself, but from the
admiration which she raises in others. She flourishes in courts and palaces, theatres
and assemblies, and has no existence but when she is looked upon.
I believe that everybody should find his/her own secret and
source of true happiness, true according to the voice of his/her own heart,
mind and conscience and not of another individual’s however great or learned he/she may be.
Finally, just for your immediate delight and instruction,
here is a beautiful poem written by an American
social worker and activist, Priscilla Leonard (1861-1948):
“HAPPINESS is like a
crystal, /Fair and exquisite and dear, /Broken in a millions pieces, /Shattered,
scattered far and near. Now and then along life’s pathway, /Lo! Some shining
fragments fall; / But there are so many pieces/No one ever finds them all.
You may find a bit of
beauty. /Or an honest share of wealth, / While another just beside you/Gathers
honor, love or health, /Vain to choose or grasp unduly, /Broken is the perfect
ball; /And there are so many pieces/No one ever finds them all.
Yet the wise as on they
journey/Treasure every fragment clear,/Fit them as they may together,/Imaging
the shattered sphere,/Learning ever to be thankful,/Though their share of it is
small;/For it has so many pieces/No one ever finds them all. “
9th January 2020 G. R. KANWAL
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