Dr A S Bhatia
I was lying in the bed scrolling down the social sites, when I came across a very short video which compelled me to have an introspection on the way most of us, the technologically advanced generation is leading the life! In the video are seen two children, one boy and other a girl, in the age group of seven to eight years dancing to the tunes of a melodious beat. There was something unusual in this clip! The boy was wearing a torn and dirty shirt with ragged pant and the little girl a blue skirt and white upper, turned muddy. Both were bare footed, having all signs of severe malnutrition with blonde hairs! All visible features were there, showing the depth of poverty from where these rag pickers must have come. But one thing which was outshining their miseries, was the happiness on their faces while dancing! Watching the video on first instance, attraction was drawn towards the warm body gestures and the smile on their innocent faces emitting happiness and just happiness from them. It was only on the repeat visuals that their miserable condition of deprivation, they were suffering from, came into notice! In this short clip, what I could perceive from these kids, is the art to be happy irrespective of the circumstances we are forced to live in!
My experience as an academician of dealing with youngsters, during which I have come to one among many conclusions that most of the young generation of this digital and virtual world cannot differentiate between Happiness, and pleasure, happiness and joy, happiness and success, happiness and satisfaction and last of all Happiness and Bliss. Truly speaking it is not the case of younger generation of colleges and universities, even many bureaucrats, head of corporate, high ranking officials, even well established professionals and ironically medicos do also fall in this category! But one thing observed among all is that everyone wants to be happy! Even without knowing , what the real happiness is? And this is the reality of a country and civilization with thousands of year of history and almost all its holy books, upanishads and all spiritual writings clearly elaborating the true meaning of happiness and the ways and means to achieve this!
In my medical profession, I have seen many well accomplished doctors with name, fame and enormous accumulated wealth in their bank accounts, but the thing noticeably missing is the smile from their faces! The way they respond monotonously and in a rough voice to the queries of their clients clearly shows the compulsion to carry on their routine work without having being happy in it! They all are successful but not happy! A happy man is a source of encouragement, motivation, freshness and spreading good sense and fragrance everywhere and their happiness is contagious , only few minutes of interaction with a happy man will make you momentarily happy! So it is not a criterion that the success will bring you happiness. Great Philosopher James Allen has said, “Men and women are rushing hither and thither in the blind search for happiness, and cannot find it; nor ever will until they recognize that happiness is already within them and around them, filling the universe, and that they, in their selfish searching , are shutting themselves out from it .” Most of us in the present time are taking a lot of trouble in our life about the things which have never happened!
In my day to day interactions with the common man, a very familiar sentence is heard from a number of people, “Doctor sahib, Shaanti Nahi Hai.” (Sir, I don’t have peace of mind). My worldly experience says peace is the prerequisite for happiness as Lord Krishna tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, “Arjuna, ashantasya kutah sukham?” If a man is not at peace with himself, how can he be happy? Very painful situation is that, the secrets of a happy and fruitful life are mentioned by the great saints thousands of years back, but the modern man has no time to read or listen to these spiritual scriptures. Inspite of attaining enormous wealth, success, name and fame many of us don’t have a steady mind. An unsteady mind most of the time is a doubtful mind and according to Bhagavad Gita, a doubtful mind will not be at peace either in this world or next.
Watching the video clip again, I thought perhaps it is the ignorance of these little kids about the fate they are going to see in coming years and the ignorance about the future in store for them was the main reason of their happiness at present ! They were living in the present , not in the past and least worried about the future ! If this can be applied by us , the so called highly educated strata of the society, who is at unrest at present time. Yes , we can make our life simple by living in the present and not worrying too much about the future which can kill our present. The pandemic has taught us many things in the last few years.
The perception about life needs to be changed. It’s good to be ambitious, desirous but the desires should be within a defined limits. The achievement of our set goals will give us a feeling of success, pleasure, joy, bliss and satisfaction. All these are temporary, transient and dependent on external objects, are short lived, generally self centered, subjective and sometimes leading to pain, guilt and stress as its long term after effects.
Then how a person can be happy in the true sense ? After going through a number of holy scriptures to understand the mystery of happiness, it became very clear to me that the key to attaining happiness is adopting and practising the way of dharma in our life! All people irrespective of their race, religion, faith, caste , creed should follow their dharma , all of which says that the universal duty of all human beings is cultivation of fellow feeling for our fellow beings and overcoming anti-feelings. Practising dharma will lead to Moksha, which is freedom, liberation from all bondage and sufferings leading to a peaceful and calm state of mind! The key to true Happiness, which is internal and everlasting is peace of mind. As in chapter 2, verse 65 , The Gita says, “Prasaade sarvaduhgkhaannaam haanir asyopajaayate; Prasannachetaso hyaashu buddhih paryavatishthate” meaning, “In that peace all pains are destroyed, for the intellect of the tranquil – minded soon becomes steady” and further added, “There is no knowledge of the self to the unsteady, and to the unsteady no meditation is possible, and to the un- meditative there can be no peace; and to the man who has no peace, how can there be happiness” (The Bhagvad Gita, Chapter 2, verse 66). So, at the end it is live and let live. Live in the present without worrying much for the tomorrow taking care of other fellow human beings and animals as Raj kapoor sang in the movie Anari,
Kisi Ki Muskurahaton, pe Ho Nisar/
Kisi Ka Dard Mil Sake To Le Udhaar
Kissike Waaste Ho, Tere Dil Mein Pyaar
Jeena Issi Ka Naam Hai !!
(The author is Principal, Government Medical College Rajouri)
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