In the recent few week, I saw the movie "The puruit of happyness" twice. As a movie, it was well made - good screenplan & editing, Will Smith in a good performance and his own son Jaden acting as his movie son did a fantastic job.
But the movie made me to think, going beyond the boundary of the script. As a continuation of my previous blog "happiness is a state of mind", I wanted to explore more of my thoughts.
But before that, did you know - The US Declaration of Independence states the right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. This is the earliest indication of a nation trying to bring in "happiness" into the purview of the state and this was signed in 4th July 1776. Much later in the mid-1900s, Japan and South Korea amended their constitution to bring in the right to pursue happiness and Vietnam added this in their declaration of independence. Bhutan was one of the other countries which started measuring the "happiness index" of its people in similar terms like GDP.
On reading this, I found it a bit of a surprise. To me, happiness is "a state of mind". It depends on the individual and can country guarantee it as a "right". Also, another interesting point that struck me was the nations did not guarantee the "right" to happiness but the "right" to pursue happiness. To me, even the "right" to pursue happiness solely depends on the individual and the state of his/her mind. As in previous blog, while I had a lot of things going great for me, but still I was not in the right frame of mind to pursue happiness, leave alone being happy. Whereas the people whom i met / saw definitely were in better state of mind to pursue happiness and probably be happy.
Thinking further, if happiness is a state of mind, what makes it easy for some people to be happy or pursue happiness while for others it is a difficult task and for some it is impossible? Is it something to do with what you have and what you do not? I doubt it. If that is the case, then I would have been better off during my bus commute when I saw the two young people (refer to my previous blog). Sometimes, it is simple. If you like what you do, you will feel happy. I have observed that whenever i am travelling to the temples, my mind is very light and i am very happy despite the discomfort of irregular food or sometimes painful journey. But what happens when things are not so simple. That is when the trouble start and the pursuit of happiness becomes difficult.
So, can we the task of being happy easier? Of course yes and our own scriptures show us the path to be happy. (to be concluded...)
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
happiness is a state of mind
I always felt that happiness is a state of mind and nothing can give us happiness. This was confirmed to me again last week by an incident.
It was a Monday morning and i was travelling to work by bus. It was already hot and humid ( i live in chennai, india). It was getting uncomfortable as I did not get a seat and had to carry my laptop bag as well. In one of the stops, two young people - a guy and a girl (mid 25s) got into the bus and went past me. From the first look, it was evident to me that they were in the middle strata in the income group and were friends travelling together. The conductor asked for ticket and the guy showed an-all-day ticket. After sometime, i noticed something different. The 2 people were conversing in sign language, it struck me that both of them were hearing and speach impaired.
Over the next 20 minutes or so, they were conversing pretty happily, with several bouts of smiles exchanged, probably sharing a joke or two. During that time it became very evident that despite all their problems, the two young people were happy (they had this minor inconvenience of not getting a seat). They were oblivious to the world around them. Just then it struckme. Here I was sitting in the bus, and was thinking of the troubles that I had in my mind as well as some issues that I would face at work that day. All this did not stand near to what these two people face on a daily basis. But still, they were happy..
As i continued on my commute, i was reminded of a second similar incident. This happened during my divyadesam trips.
I was travelling to the divyadesams around mayavaram. During a visit to one of the temple in a village which apart from the temple, had only a small shop and about 25 houses across 4 streets, we reached after it was closed. We were told that the bhattar (priest) lived in the same street and we can go to his house to get the temple opened. This was around 3 pm in the afternoon. When we went his house, he gave us a warm welcome, offered us something to drink and eat. Since we had completed our lunch, we declined the offer. He then offered us to drink atleast water. The water was pretty hard with a tinge of salt. He explained that this is "well water" and ground water is pretty hard in these areas. He went on to tell us that he generally takes his two wheeler ( an old tvs 50) to the next village about 5 - 6 kms to bring his family's daily quota of water for drinking / cooking and that day there was no supply. We then went to the temple which was not so well maintained and that he had to spend some of his salary for the upkeep. Despite all this, he was extremely happy. He said that the God has taken care of him very well - "Perumal enna divyama paathukurar" is what he said. He added that he was getting about 2000 Rs a month and was more than happy with that.
These two incidents reaffirmed that happiness is a state of mind and cleared some of my own "troubles" by the time i got down from the bus.
It was a Monday morning and i was travelling to work by bus. It was already hot and humid ( i live in chennai, india). It was getting uncomfortable as I did not get a seat and had to carry my laptop bag as well. In one of the stops, two young people - a guy and a girl (mid 25s) got into the bus and went past me. From the first look, it was evident to me that they were in the middle strata in the income group and were friends travelling together. The conductor asked for ticket and the guy showed an-all-day ticket. After sometime, i noticed something different. The 2 people were conversing in sign language, it struck me that both of them were hearing and speach impaired.
Over the next 20 minutes or so, they were conversing pretty happily, with several bouts of smiles exchanged, probably sharing a joke or two. During that time it became very evident that despite all their problems, the two young people were happy (they had this minor inconvenience of not getting a seat). They were oblivious to the world around them. Just then it struckme. Here I was sitting in the bus, and was thinking of the troubles that I had in my mind as well as some issues that I would face at work that day. All this did not stand near to what these two people face on a daily basis. But still, they were happy..
As i continued on my commute, i was reminded of a second similar incident. This happened during my divyadesam trips.
I was travelling to the divyadesams around mayavaram. During a visit to one of the temple in a village which apart from the temple, had only a small shop and about 25 houses across 4 streets, we reached after it was closed. We were told that the bhattar (priest) lived in the same street and we can go to his house to get the temple opened. This was around 3 pm in the afternoon. When we went his house, he gave us a warm welcome, offered us something to drink and eat. Since we had completed our lunch, we declined the offer. He then offered us to drink atleast water. The water was pretty hard with a tinge of salt. He explained that this is "well water" and ground water is pretty hard in these areas. He went on to tell us that he generally takes his two wheeler ( an old tvs 50) to the next village about 5 - 6 kms to bring his family's daily quota of water for drinking / cooking and that day there was no supply. We then went to the temple which was not so well maintained and that he had to spend some of his salary for the upkeep. Despite all this, he was extremely happy. He said that the God has taken care of him very well - "Perumal enna divyama paathukurar" is what he said. He added that he was getting about 2000 Rs a month and was more than happy with that.
These two incidents reaffirmed that happiness is a state of mind and cleared some of my own "troubles" by the time i got down from the bus.
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