The greatest joy of life
During a recent inter-faith meet organised by the Ramakrishna Mission in Delhi as part of the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, while delivering the keynote address, said: “Our aim in founding the state was not the disproportionate happiness of any one class but the greatest happiness of the whole.” He was quoting from the Dialogues of Plato to lay the foundation to promote his thoughts.
Despite the fact that Plato arrived at that aim 2,400 years ago and despite all the religions teaching human beings to live for others, humanity has not found the right formula for everyone’s happiness. And the reason why people still keep knocking at the doors of soothsayers and astrologers in search of happiness is that people think of their own happiness first rather than “the greatest happiness of the whole (the other)”. Seeking desperately one’s own happiness may well be due to the instinct of self-preservation, though self-actualised individuals do sublimate those instincts and dedicate their lives for others.
It remains a mystery to me as to why people who have amassed more than enough wealth to live their life, continue running after more wealth. They show little or no sign of sharing with the poor and needy who cannot even have two meals a day.
That’s why Mahatma Gandhi, whose birth anniversary we celebrated yesterday, had recommended this talisman: “Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions then you will find your doubt in yourself melting away.”
Gandhi was one of the very few human beings who renounced even wearing a shirt to identify with the millions who did not have one. His talisman was different from the many preachers who moralise but do not put them in practice. It is for them that Jesus, too, had said, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practise what they preach” (Matthew 23:2-3).
True spirituality would make us work towards “greatest happiness of the whole”.
Father Dominic Emmanuel, a founder-member of Parliament of Religions, is currently the director of communication of the Delhi Catholic Church. He can be contacted at
frdominic@gmail.com
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