Friday, 27 June 2025

HAPPINESS

 

                HAPPINESS

            Some familiar synonyms of happiness are : cheerfulness, joyfulness, carefreeness, enjoyment, gladness, delight, contentment, pleasure, satisfaction, etc.

            Satisfaction is the result of fulfillment of one’s wishes, expectations, needs, desires, requirements, dreams, and expectations.

            Happiness also depends upon one’s fate which is determined by providence and the quantum of which is also dependent upon one’s good or bad deeds in previous births.

            Strangely enough, there are happy poor people  and unhappy rich people all over world.   

            Contentment is the main condition for happiness.

            Don’t multiply your wishes, needs and desires; reduce them as much as you can and the result will be adequate control over unhappiness.

            According to Lord Gautam Buddha who lived in the 6th to 4th century BCE in India, there is eightfold path to ensure happiness. This consists of right thought, right action, right speech, right effort, right mindfulness right livelihood, right understanding and right concentration. He also lays emphasis on accepting four noble truths --- suffering, cause of suffering, cessation of suffering and the end of suffering. Another way suggested by him is to avoid extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification.

             Somebody said: The secret of happiness is renunciation. Another one said:  An act of goodness is itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it.  

            Finally, the following  some relevant  quotes:

*Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

**Happiness comes with the feeling of inner joy and satisfaction,

***Happiness is but an occasional episode in the general drama of pain. ---The English novelist Thomas Hardy ( 1840-1928) in his novel The Mayor of Casterbridge.

This quote reflects Hardy’s characteristic pessimism and his view of life as a tragic experience with only fleeting moments of joy.

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G.R.Kanwal

27 June 2025

 

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