A Journey To Happiness Or A Journey Of Happiness (Part 1)?

We commonly express the following incorrect words in our everyday interactions – Wait till I achieve this particular goal, whether it be a promotion, success in a particular exam, marriage, retirement, the birth of a child or an end of a difficult situation and I will be happy. Why are all of these incorrect words? Aren’t these all life is all about? Isn’t calling all of them incorrect unnatural? Try remembering a single moment in your life without these and you will be left wondering. It is important to realize the incorrectness of waiting for goals to be achieved and then becoming happy. So it is good to introspect that is it a journey to happiness or is it a journey of happiness? The wait for happiness is incorrect because one goal is followed by another challenge; the challenge is followed by another unexpected phase, leaving us without any moments to experience our desired happiness amidst so many uncomfortable pressure points. 

Happiness can be defined as a state of being created, while working towards a goal, not a feeling to be experienced after achieving the goal. This is simply because life is a journey with a series of goals, sometimes one after the other and sometimes with two or even more than two goals co-existing with each other. So should one anxiously wait for the goals to be achieved or should one take the wait for goals to be achieved, in one’s stride accepting it as an integral part of our life journey. For very long, we have associated happiness with achievement and this has become an integral part of our modern day belief system, as the speed of life has become faster and more challenging with each day. Spiritual wisdom suggests a change in this thinking and teaches associating happiness with experiencing each day – (i) experiencing creative ideas (ii) experiencing your strengths, specialties and skills by bringing them in action (iii) experiencing beautiful relationships with the self, with God and with others (iv) experiencing goodness and beautiful virtues and giving others an experience of the same.

(To be continued tomorrow …)