A Swami is meditating at the feet of Himalayas, fully absorbed in his tapas, not for his salvation but for the entire humanity. When he is back to the conscious state, he is asked, “Are you happy?”
“How can I remain happy, when many of you are unhappy on Earth?”
Let us take a snapshot picture of people wading through the streets, entering into banks and other offices, sitting in restaurants, bars and theaters and so on. By close observation you would notice that with the exception of a few, there’s no trace of cheerfulness of joyous expression on their faces. You just watch yourself into the mirror, and suddenly you would realize that all the sadness on the earth would be just written on that. Kindly don’t mistake me, it is not ‘you’, but all of us, ‘we’ have this attribute, the sad and brutal fact of being unnecessarily unhappy with our selves.
Once Abraham Lincoln told that sadness was dripping from his face and that if he was to redistribute it evenly on all the faces, no one could be happy on Earth. Forget the sense of humor of Lincoln, we must understand the agony that he would have undergone by seeing all the treachery around him.
Why are we not happy? When we arrived on earth, from somewhere, we had all the magnetism, heightened innocence, and all happiness under the Sun. have you ever noticed the infant child sleeping and also smiling while sleeping? All of us were in a wonderful blissful state of experience during our childhood. How did they vanish and evaporate into thin air while we were growing up ? How could we afford to abandon that innocent laughter so soon? No one has a right to be unhappy. Indeed everyone spends his whole life time in accumulating riches , which will help enable him to enjoy all the comforts of life. But at the end of the day, are they happy and peaceful? Will cheerful disposition and good health of both body and mind will simply follow from those material acquisitions? The answer is an affirmative ‘No’. Please don’t misunderstand me that I am not suggesting any frugal life for others. I only say and suggest that the current phase of materialist, capitalist civilization with all built-in money making madness and pub culture, really do not provide any lasting peace or emotional security.
Science and Technology have thrown open a new vista of consumerism of elite variety and the privileged and blessed affluent segment soak themselves into an extravaganza of reckless and ruthless comforts triggered by rich man’s stock market socialism. Costly electronic gadgets, air conditioned banglows and cars, combined with all their titles and designations like industrialist or banker, keep them in a intoxicated state of power , arrogance and individualism and so on. But are they happy? Will cell phone and A/C Car confer perpetual happiness, peace and a sense of well being ? Are they aware of their self, as an individual, or identify themselves with the mask that they are wearing and hence forget their true nature, the inherently childlike nature of being happy and enjoying each moment of life as if it is new or last In life.
A Collector in a district, a police officer in a metropolitan city, or a great university professor can’t just walk in home or non office corridors, fully conscious of their titles and official identity.
The inherently lovable nature of human,- the child like innocence of the personality is buried deep under the mask of identifying ourselves with the positions that we hold. This fundamental flaw needs to be weeded out, if we are to rediscover and reinvent our true nature. More than scholarship and material richness, what is needed is to develop deeper and stronger feelings of care and concern for the fellow humans. To what extent, we can provide comfort zone for others in our daily living, especially in lifting the people from the bottom while they are climbing in their ladder is more important than anything else in the world. The essence of all religion is that at each moment one should really enjoy life, given all the constraints and the challenges. But the crude fact is that we are in perpetual worry or sorrow, a sense of alienation and grey dejection haunting our mind, making misplaced comparisons with others. This identity crisis must go by looking inward and keeping ourselves engaged in an activity which we like and cherish most.
I am told by my PhD Scholar that this is the 100th posting, since the creation of the blog. Thanks to his untiring effort and goading. I could write on general themes in the recent times. I still feel guilty that I am not able to articulate on many contemporary themes related to international finance, where I do have some special advantage.
“How can I remain happy, when many of you are unhappy on Earth?”
Let us take a snapshot picture of people wading through the streets, entering into banks and other offices, sitting in restaurants, bars and theaters and so on. By close observation you would notice that with the exception of a few, there’s no trace of cheerfulness of joyous expression on their faces. You just watch yourself into the mirror, and suddenly you would realize that all the sadness on the earth would be just written on that. Kindly don’t mistake me, it is not ‘you’, but all of us, ‘we’ have this attribute, the sad and brutal fact of being unnecessarily unhappy with our selves.
Once Abraham Lincoln told that sadness was dripping from his face and that if he was to redistribute it evenly on all the faces, no one could be happy on Earth. Forget the sense of humor of Lincoln, we must understand the agony that he would have undergone by seeing all the treachery around him.
Why are we not happy? When we arrived on earth, from somewhere, we had all the magnetism, heightened innocence, and all happiness under the Sun. have you ever noticed the infant child sleeping and also smiling while sleeping? All of us were in a wonderful blissful state of experience during our childhood. How did they vanish and evaporate into thin air while we were growing up ? How could we afford to abandon that innocent laughter so soon? No one has a right to be unhappy. Indeed everyone spends his whole life time in accumulating riches , which will help enable him to enjoy all the comforts of life. But at the end of the day, are they happy and peaceful? Will cheerful disposition and good health of both body and mind will simply follow from those material acquisitions? The answer is an affirmative ‘No’. Please don’t misunderstand me that I am not suggesting any frugal life for others. I only say and suggest that the current phase of materialist, capitalist civilization with all built-in money making madness and pub culture, really do not provide any lasting peace or emotional security.
Science and Technology have thrown open a new vista of consumerism of elite variety and the privileged and blessed affluent segment soak themselves into an extravaganza of reckless and ruthless comforts triggered by rich man’s stock market socialism. Costly electronic gadgets, air conditioned banglows and cars, combined with all their titles and designations like industrialist or banker, keep them in a intoxicated state of power , arrogance and individualism and so on. But are they happy? Will cell phone and A/C Car confer perpetual happiness, peace and a sense of well being ? Are they aware of their self, as an individual, or identify themselves with the mask that they are wearing and hence forget their true nature, the inherently childlike nature of being happy and enjoying each moment of life as if it is new or last In life.
A Collector in a district, a police officer in a metropolitan city, or a great university professor can’t just walk in home or non office corridors, fully conscious of their titles and official identity.
The inherently lovable nature of human,- the child like innocence of the personality is buried deep under the mask of identifying ourselves with the positions that we hold. This fundamental flaw needs to be weeded out, if we are to rediscover and reinvent our true nature. More than scholarship and material richness, what is needed is to develop deeper and stronger feelings of care and concern for the fellow humans. To what extent, we can provide comfort zone for others in our daily living, especially in lifting the people from the bottom while they are climbing in their ladder is more important than anything else in the world. The essence of all religion is that at each moment one should really enjoy life, given all the constraints and the challenges. But the crude fact is that we are in perpetual worry or sorrow, a sense of alienation and grey dejection haunting our mind, making misplaced comparisons with others. This identity crisis must go by looking inward and keeping ourselves engaged in an activity which we like and cherish most.
I am told by my PhD Scholar that this is the 100th posting, since the creation of the blog. Thanks to his untiring effort and goading. I could write on general themes in the recent times. I still feel guilty that I am not able to articulate on many contemporary themes related to international finance, where I do have some special advantage.
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