Happiness

[fatima]

I remember waiting for my life to get easier. I thought, when I have fewer problems, and then I’ll be happy! Then I noticed something fascinating. The happiest people I knew had more problems than I did. Maybe you have noticed the same thing that people who seem to get the most out of life have often had it tough. They have lost loved ones, they’ve gone broke, they’ve suffered major illnesses and most likely, they still have big problems! But they are happy because at some point they decided happy is the only way to live. Happiness doesn’t just happen to you, like some accident. It is something you choose. You make the choice to be happy first. Happiness is a daily decision.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

जय सांई राम।।।

No one is happy unless he is reasonably well satisfied with himself, so that the quest for tranquility must of necessity begin with self-examination. We shall not often be content with what we discover in this scrutiny. There is so much to do, and so little done. Upon this searching self-analysis, however, depends the discovery of those qualities that make each man unique and whose development alone can bring satisfaction. Happiness comes from within, and rests most securely on simple goodness and clear conscience, to make another happy is to be happy ones' self.

Few outline for happiness:

To live content with small means;
To see elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion;
To be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich;
To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly;
To listen to the stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart;
To bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never;
in a word to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common.

It will be noted that no one can do this for you; you must do it for yourself.

अपना सांई प्यारा सांई सबसे न्यारा अपना सांई

ॐ सांई राम।।।

[SS91]

ॐ सांई राम।।।   
There was never a time when so much official effort was being expended to produce happiness, and probably never a time when so little attention was paid by the individual to creating and personal qualities that make for it.

What one misses most today is the evidence of widespread personal determination to develop a character that will, in itself, given any reasonable odds, make for happiness. Our whole emphasis is on the reform of living conditions, of increased wages, of controls on the economic structure-the government approach-and so little on man improving himself.

The ingredients of happiness are so simple that they can be counted on one hand. Happiness comes from within, and rests most securely on simple goodness and clear conscience. Religion may not be essential to it, but no one ins known to have gained it without a philosophy resting on ethical principles.

Selfishness is its enemy; to make another happy is to be happy one's self. It is quiet, seldom found for long in crowds, most easily won in moments of solitude and reflection. It cannot be bought; indeed, money has very little to do with it. No one is happy unless he is reasonably well satisfied with himself, so that the quest for tranquility must of necessity begin with self-examination. We shall not often be content with what we discover in this scrutiny. There is much to do, and so little done. Upon this searching self-analysis, however, depends the discovery of those qualities that make each man unique, and whose development alone can bring satisfaction.

Of all those who have tried, down the ages, to outline a program for happiness, few have succeeded so well as William Henry Channing, chaplain of the House of Representatives in the middle of the last century:

"To live content with small means; so seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy . . . to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to the stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never; in a word to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common." It will be noted that no government can do this for you; you must do it for yourself.

जय सांई राम।।।