Hakuna Matata
Most people do not know how to be happy. They look for happiness outside rather than within. They feel happy when they are praised, respected or when their expectations/desires are fulfilled. But when that does not happen, when they are criticised, their ego is hurt or expectations are not met, they feel sad.
Is our happiness, then, in others’ hands?
This is an important question and the right answer will help us live a happy life, no matter what our circumstances.
At a party a woman asked her happy-looking friend if her husband makes her happy. “Does he take care of you so well that you always seem to be happy?” she asked.
The husband, who could hear the question, was very interested in this conversation. He sat up, his chest swelled with pride, knowing that his spouse would answer in the affirmative since he had always been there for her. But, to his surprise, his wife replied, “No, he doesn’t make me happy.”
The room became uncomfortably quiet. Everyone was listening to the woman’s response. The husband was terrified. He couldn’t believe what his wife was saying, that too in the presence of so many people. To the shock of her husband and of everyone, she enigmatically placed an elegant black silk scarf on her head and continued: “No, my husband doesn’t make me happy. The fact that I am happy, or not, does not depend on him, but on me. I make the choice to be happy in each and every moment of my life.”
With all eyes in the room still on her, she went on, “If my happiness were to depend on other people, on other things or circumstances, I would be in serious trouble. Everything that exists in this life keeps changing: humans, wealth, emotions, behaviour, physical body, climate, choices etc. If I make my happiness depend on them then I would never be happy.” She added that it was her decision to stay happy, the rest was a matter of “experiences or circumstances”.
There are people who say they cannot be happy because they are sick, have no money, because it’s too cold, because they were insulted, because someone stopped loving them, because someone didn’t appreciate them, and so on. Being happy is an attitude towards life and it’s your decision, to be happy or unhappy.
Sri Rameshji Jain is a modern age spiritual guru and founder of Poorna Ananda, a centre for spiritual evolution and joyful living.
Post new comment