So what is happiness ? I have found that there is no absolute definition of happiness. It is very subjective. What makes me happy, may not make you happy. For example, a good quality work will be a priority for me which gives me happiness but good money would be priority for someone else. What gives me happiness now will not give me happiness say after an year or so. I may be craving for a car now but after an year the same car wont make me happy. There is a relativistic sense to happiness. It is a function of time and circumstances and the individual subject under consideration. For a person who is going to be hanged, a lottery prize of a million dollars wont bring any happiness. One important observation that we should take care of is that happiness is tied to objects, or at least that is what we have observed in the last few lines. So, there is an additional parameter in the function for happiness - which is the object one is craving for. In fact, if we carefully sample the function - we can see that the object of happiness, which is again temporal in nature, is the necessary and sufficient condition for happiness. It is therefore important for us to understand the nature of this craving for this object of happiness.
The craving for the object of happiness is called DESIRE. Essentially, it is also said in the Holy Bhagwad Geeta that - "Desire is the root cause of all action." Everything that we do is driven by desire. The only consistent desire (root - desire , desire can have a transitive nature) that we find in human beings is the desire to be happy. What ever we do is to make us happy. So, we essentially keep looking for happiness in those objects that we desire for. The next question that arises in me is - Is happiness meant to be shortlived ? Or am I looking for at the wrong place ? Either one of them has to be true, because typically I cannot remain happy forever with the objects that I crave for. My desires change every other day or rather every other moment. How can I then be sure that my happiness is not meant to be short lived. Because, it is not necessary that I get the object that I crave for and that will deprive me of happiness.
The craving for the object of happiness is called DESIRE. Essentially, it is also said in the Holy Bhagwad Geeta that - "Desire is the root cause of all action." Everything that we do is driven by desire. The only consistent desire (root - desire , desire can have a transitive nature) that we find in human beings is the desire to be happy. What ever we do is to make us happy. So, we essentially keep looking for happiness in those objects that we desire for. The next question that arises in me is - Is happiness meant to be shortlived ? Or am I looking for at the wrong place ? Either one of them has to be true, because typically I cannot remain happy forever with the objects that I crave for. My desires change every other day or rather every other moment. How can I then be sure that my happiness is not meant to be short lived. Because, it is not necessary that I get the object that I crave for and that will deprive me of happiness.
Happiness cannot be short lived. I will try to explain why. If it was meant to be short lived, we would not be looking for it every now and then even though we loose it. It is in our inherent nature (prakriti) to be happy and thats why we crave for it despite all the problems and issues we face. If it was meant to be short lived, we would not be looking for it every now and then, we would have come to terms with it and would not be looking for it again. Loosing happiness would be acceptable to all of us. But that is not the case, I guess we are looking at the wrong place. More later, till then be happy.
