Am I "truly" happy?

When was the last time you were “truly” happy? How does one know that the happiness being experienced is “true” or not? Can this be understood through the amount of time the happiness lingers on and gives us that “good” feeling? Finally, one of the most important of all questions that every one of us ask ourselves many times in a day: Where/how/in whom/in what do I find happiness? For some who seek to dig deeper, the question becomes more pertinent by adding up a “true, long-lasting” before the word happiness in the question above. Whether we are aware or not, whether we consciously or subconsciously seek answers or not, the mind works constantly and consistently to provide us with the feeling of well-being just like water finds its way even through the toughest of barriers. Water seeps through walls, streams find ways around rocks to flow through and surge ahead. Similarly, our mind keeps scanning situations / people / places / experiences to feed us with this feeling of wellbeing just like the heart keeps beating to circulate blood.

This quest for happiness is mostly involuntary and short-lived. A movie, a TV show or an event cannot prolong the euphoria for a longer period after it is over and gradually the dopamine levels ebbs bringing about a sense of disappointment at the loss. Craving for the next such surge of happiness hormones ensues and this game continues as we move from one experience to another in this eternal cat-and-mouse game. Some take the route of physical activity which releases endorphins to elevate the mood. Some, take solace in artificial methods that can alter the mood.

Can there be a method, in all this madness that we experience, with which one can prolong the experience of bliss? Is there a science or an art that brings in some sanity to this search? Since it is the mind that we associate with all this search, since it is something that happens within us involuntarily that one needs to look within. To reach this innermost part of our being, our existence is not easy. It is not difficult either! We all know it is difficult to reach there. Do we know why?

When a child is born, it is born as a pure soul – no contamination at all! The most blissful stage is that of an infant. The happiness and calm that a newborn or a few months old infant is palpable. It can be just a wishful thinking to stay the same as we were born. A child cannot remain the same as it grows because it gets influenced by myriad of factors that it encounters with growth. It is born just as a child but in the next few days or hours of its birth many labels are heaped on to it (not necessarily in the same order):

·         A name is accorded – becoming its identity

·         A surname is suffixed/prefixed – giving it a family, being the child of its parents, grandchild of its grandparents, siblings of its brothers and sisters

·         The child inherits a religious identity of being a Hindu / a Muslim / a Christian / a Buddhist from the parents / family

·         The child has a geographical identity of the place of its birth, state, nationality

·         Race, color of skin

·         Wealth – abundance or lack of it inherited from parents / family

As it will grow, it will keep on accumulating many such labels of being the member of its school / college / education. Further growth will bring on more labels from the profession that one practices and in the profession, it keeps aggregating more and more labels based on level of talent, designation, fame, money etc. In this melee, where is the pure soul that it was born as. It remains buried under the layers and layers of labels that the child keeps wearing on the pure soul where lies true happiness.   

In spite of the years of conditioning that we keep identifying ourselves with the labels that we have gathered over the years and which we wear with aplomb, we still are just a shot away from the everlasting bliss. This can happen if we touch base with our true nature to which we were born. To come in touch with our true nature what we need is to drop our labels and conditionings. Can we cleanse our body if we bathe with our clothes on? Similarly, to get touched by the pure soul and for its pure nature to manifest, we need to drop our labels. At least for a few minutes every day if this can be practiced, we can, for some time, get touched with unalloyed happiness. This practice when done over a period of time, can bring about a balanced approach to our expectations, ambitions and most importantly bring about “true” happiness and bliss in life…