I often ask myself-which was the happiest time of my short and sweet life so far...there are immediately a flurry of events which come to mind. Then I wonder why are non of these feelings permanent? Ofcourse when I think about it now I am happy-but along with it comes a tinge of dissapointment which says-"Things are'nt the same anymore". Is it necessary to have some disspointments in life to really realise the happy moments?
When I dig a bit deeper, I find a commmon thread that runs through all these events-they were all in one form or the other some event of social acceptance, some "acheivements" (I am using this term purely in the way the society defines it), time spent with friends...and so on. Each of these satisfied atleast one of the basic human cravings-acceptance,recognition,desire to be part of a community and so on...
But wait, there was one other time when I was happy, so happy that I dont even remember it, how many of you remember the time you were a small kid, I am talking about a really small one maybe one-two years old. Well at that time I didnt care about what people thought about me, I didnt care about how eloquent I was, I couldn't just hurt anyone's feelings, I had no expectations of myself and didn't just care about whether or not others had one for me. I never judged anyone because I knew noone. I was a great listener and a great observer primarily because I couldn't just talk, there were simple ways of expressing myself-crying when I was hungry and laughing when people made faces at me. I didn't just care about how rich the guy next door was, nor was I concerned with Bush's pursuance of hapless nations. I was so so happy with the current state of things that I didn't even care to remember those things.
But there I made the mistake, I didnt bother to remember...I have totally forgotten the meaning of being happy and today even if I want to go back it is well next to impossible. I have allowed myself to be conditioned so well that now the society beleives (and so do I) that I am happy for all the preconditions to be happy (family, work, friends etc) are all met. But my question is where did this precondition come in the first place!!!
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This is a very gud thought everyone shud come across, at some point in time. When u were a baby, all the happiness was within u. The reason why u dont remember them is bcoz u din't know what unhappiness was (bliss, wasn't it ;-))
ReplyDelete'Enlightened' people say that even now the happiness is within you only...but it has been clouded by your thoughts and misrepresentations of happiness...One quote of Jaggi that rings in my ears..."As long as you make your happiness dependent on external objects, you are bound to be unhappy (due to the innumerous factors that are out of ur control acting on the external object u r dependent on)"
One more reason y one thinks he/she was happy when he/she was young and now isn't happy is "Now people think a lot" and start cribbing abt unnecessary things.
ReplyDeleteAll your needs were taken care of da in childhood. And they were simple too. like wanting to be held by someone or wanting food. Problems came later in adolescence when neither clarity about needs or the guts to get them satisfied was there.
ReplyDeleteI have to quote one instance here.
ReplyDeleteOk, a 6 yr old girl(Punnagai Begum - there is a small story behind her name) also comes to the dance class I go to. There r totally 5 other girls of my age. We tend to forget the sequence of steps at times but Punnagai Begum never forgets.
So my dance teacher used to say, when u ppl have a lot to think abt, her whole world is comprised of few things, of which dance is a part.
So the same way, we have to worry abt a lot of things, which we din't have to when we were young.
Jesus said 'Only those who are truly a child at heart can enter the Kingdom of Heaven'.
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