Happiness decoded
Humanity has made remarkable progress over time, and especially the progress made in the current decade is overwhelming, and is so threatening as if nothing in the world is out of its reach now.
Human beings, on the other hand, are continuing its time-immortal pursuit of happiness and looks at ways and means to satisfy their sensual pleasures and powering name and fame as if it’s going to get engraved in the womb of time.
However, so far, scientists haven’t been able to come up with any mathematical equation, i.e., sum of xyz, multiplied by abc , divided by rst etc, which could be termed as assured recipe of happiness.
We would have achieved permanent happiness long time back but for the fact that we want to be happier than other happy people around, allowing virus of unending comparisons seep into human beings, and that never allows us to feel happy and satisfied. Comparisons between siblings, extended families, neighbourhood, at the place of learning and at the place of work discounts our happiness, and at times makes us jealous of more successful people, which is a virtue with far reaching negative consequences.
Here is the suggested solution to guard against viruses which comes along with progress, which if combated well, shall to a great extent, leaves humans happy and satisfied, no matter what may happen around us.
ACCEPT the life as it is. Accept the fact that no matter who you are, or what may have been your background, your upbringing, your successes and achievements, there will always be people around you who will look better, who can speak/write better, are smarter, have achieved relatively more name, fame and riches, and are accustom to still better lifestyles than you. ACCEPT that. Accept that without any grudge, for those people are living their own destiny at that point of time, and you are living your own destiny. at the same point of time. There can not be any comparison on the horizon of time. Refuse to get bogged down with any kind of comparison at any stage of life. Rather work on making other people around you happy, as that shall help you stay away from getting into any comparison mode.
However, that doesn’t mean that one should stop learning and improving in their respective field of life and putting in more hard work. That only means, keep doing your best but do not ever get into the rat race to outsmart others in your field of activity.
Remember, whatever be your challenges, frustrations at any given point of time, still there are people around you who have graver challenges, bleak visibility about their future, and who crave for your level of lifestyles which you are living at that point of time and with which you are not happy with.
Well known lyricist Anand Bakshi penned God’s wisdom in his poetry, as recaptured here under:-
यह जीवन है, इस जीवन का, यही है , यही है, यही है रंग रूप ,……..थोड़े ग़म है, थोड़ी ख़ुशिया, थोड़े गम है , थोड़ी ख़ुशिया , यही है ,यही है , यही है छाँव धूप …….
यह ना सोचो इसमें अपनी हार है के जीत है , उसे अपना लो जो भी जीवन की रीत है, यह ज़िद छोड़, मुँह ना मोड़ो, हर पाल इक दर्पण है………
To give you a perspective, which is relevant to realm of our current awareness, even the greatest of great tecnocrats, Steve Jobs was dumped by the Apple management in the midst of prime of his professional life when he had already established his credentials. Destiny took its course, after he lived life in oblivion for almost a decade, and Steve Jobs sprang back and captained the most enviable company Apple, and his dream products ipod, iphone and ipads etc saw the light of day and revolutionised lifestyle of most of the people around the globe.
One more example from the most popular game we Indians relate to …..Cricket. The game of cricket is being played for well over a century, and over this period of time, across all cricket playing countries, there are few immortal greats the game has produced who are, and who shall be hailed by existing generation and generations to come. In Indian peresective, among many greats we admired, there is one who is still in active game, though he no more dons Indian colours. Yes, he is called MSD (M S Dhoni). While MSD was to emerge one of the greatest of greats of game, yet he too had to wait for his time.
Whereas Parthiv Patel debut on 8th Aug 2002, Dinesh Karthik debut on 5th Sept 2004, MSD had to wait and debut on 23rd Dec 2004. Not only that, Yuvraj Singh, MSD’s compatriot, debut on 3rd Oct 2000 - well 4 years ahead of when the greatest of great was to shine on the horizon. Just think of how MSD would have felt in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and till late 2004, when others got chance to play for the country ahead of him. I am sure he must have been devoting all his time in improving his game and staying athletic instead of envying good luck of others and cursing his own luck.
When his time came, it more than offset all the times he would have lost between 2000-2004, and rode the wave of success, fame and recognition as no one else in India would have achieved that so far. Staying positive brought in all the gains anyone could have ever dreamt of.
Similarly, there are many more late bloomers who tasted success quite late, to name few, Bollywood actor Amrish Puri, Boman Irani, Director & Producer Raju Hirani etc. These people stayed away from burn out, managed their frustrations well and kept working as if the time- canvass is endless. When they arrived, there was none who could have matched their respective brilliance. They made up of all the lost opportunities they would have missed because of their late recognition.
So, waiting for your time is no sin. It has to be converted into an art, which expands your horizon, and keeps the fire alive till you reach your destination.
While you wait for your time, guard against viruses of anger & frustrations and infections of self-doubt and jealousy to creep into your personality.
It’s rightly said, those also serve who stand and wait. Keep batting bat and pad close together, don’t throw your wicket, just because you are not able to hit the ball, and wait for your time to ripe when you get to play your destined role.
Stay rooted to your objectives and continue to be passionate about what is close to your heart.
Apna time ayega (Your time will come)