Happiness - A state of mind or an everlasting illusion

The biggest question which many troubled souls have is how to find peace, how to find happiness. What are the tools for achieving them ? How can one sustain them once achieved ? This is a question which is asked by males and females, by children and by aged, not to forget the youth who are the most troubled lot. Its an answer which is seek-ed by every human irrespective of his caste / creed /religion /sex.

Why not animals ask this?

Not because they don't have a language to speak but because they have not bound themselves by the ropes of hatred, the greedy walls of achievement, the thirst to have it all.

So are animals better off than us? Even after progress of over 20 centuries why is man not better than animal. Surprised? I am not talking about the technological progress. Yes we have progressed a lot technically, from fire to laser lights, from radio to ipods, from paper to computers. But each progress has taken us a step back. In a movie which I watched recently [Lage raho munnabhai –India], the anchor says that we are in touch with the world through internet but do not know the neighbour next door. So true is this, so true across all parts of the world.

Let’s first define happiness.

Is it money? Is it success? No.

Is it that we are victorious always? No.

Though people may “feel” Happy when they get any of the three above, it’s not everlasting. By happiness I mean, the state of the mind being in control, the state when you are able to find sorrow in joy and joy in sorrow. It’s about getting up daily and saying thank God for this beautiful morning today, it’s about thanking God every night for the day irrespective of it being good or bad.