HELPING OTHERS IS THE SECRET TO FINDING LONGLASTING HAPPINESS

All of us want to be happy, little realising the fact that happiness is a temporary state of mind. It cannot last long, as every wish-fulfillment has diminishing emotional satisfaction, and it begets boredom in natural process. The sooner we realise it, the better it is. Otherwise nature will teach us in its own way. Some of us get happiness from material objects, others from intellectual pursuits, while some others from emotional bonds. But happiness by nature, as we know, is never permanent.

British philosopher Bertrand Russell did not want to go to eternal heaven, thinking it to be too boring with stereotyped pleasures without challenges, trials and tribulations of life which make it worth living. In fact, the concept of eternal heaven or eternal hell is self-defeating as it is not in tune with the scheme of creation, where every created thing is subject to birth, growth, decay and death or transformation.

The only way to get unending happiness is by giving happiness to others in the way we can. When we act in a manner that is self-centred and selfish, we unknowingly end up making ourselves unhappy. When we expand our limited horizons, we attract limitless happiness.

We should, therefore, give up the idea of being happy and try to make others happy as an ardent observer of life, which is a prolonged journey and not a destination in itself.