I came across an ariticle on "Man's search for meaning" a book by Viktor E Frankl published in 1946. One of the quote from this book " Happiness cannot be pursued but must ensue, as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a course greater than oneself. Happiness must happen and you need to let it happen by not caring for it". Profound thoughts from a Dr from Austria. A point to expand on the statement - you cannot pursue happiness but must become a consequence, a consequence of our thoughts, deeds and actions. A lot of times, i feel this very true. There is no silver bullet to find happiness. But is this not something our indian philosophy has told us? Going back to our roots, we can find the path to pursue which will lead us to experience happiness.
So, I went back to the Hindu scriptures and found several reference to being happy. Happiness does not come out of possessing enormous quantity of welath, being surrounded by the best things life, having no problems in life etc, but it comes out of realisation on our purpose in this life. We have seen someone like Dasaratha a very learned man and a great king suffer from the pangs of being separated from his son. On the other hand, King Janaka was a great man who was not affected by any of the wordly happenings. He was a person who followed the ideal path of "nishkamya karma" and was a "stithapragyna". While nishkamya karma is all about doing your duty without the attachment to it, stithapragyna is about not being affected but any emotions. One of the best examples of nishkamya karma is Lord Krishna. In the Gita, He tells Arjuna that despite being the God of the Universe, he still continues his duty. Our best bet to the path of happiness is to be detached to our actions and be not bothered about the results of our actions. This can help us in keeping our minds free.
These were great principles for us to follow but have become very difficult in our present day lives. We tend to think too much on what we want to do, what we did rather than focussing on the present. Living for the present without attachment to our actions with clean thoughts and deeds can lead us on the path to happiness.
