Happiness in life

Happiness is a state of mind or feeling such as contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy.

There is no instrument to measure happiness. Happiness is a supreme goal of human beings. The meaning of life depends on it. From time immemorial, man has been preoccupied with the quest of happiness in life, from the cradle to the grave. He works and struggles very hard to attain happiness, very often without knowing exactly what happiness means because of his ignorance of the nature of life. 

Although all religions provide advice and guidelines for their believers to practice in order to attain happiness in life, more often than not, these advices and guidelines are ignored owing to man's craving, hatred and illusion. Many people who experienced frustrations and sufferings hope and pray to find happiness for present life and here after; others, though enjoying a large measure of happiness on earth, are still not contented and crave for eternal bliss in heaven after leaving this world. For the ordinary man, as for the child, it is difficult to make a distinction between happiness and pleasure. To him, that which gives pleasure give happiness, and to be happy is to experience pleasure.

Very often, we consider childhood days to be a period of happiness. In reality, as children we do not understand what happiness is. Under the protection of our parents, we pass our days in an uninterrupted round of enjoyment which undoubtedly gives us pleasure. As we enter in teenage years, changes take place in the mind and physical body causing us to become aware of the existence of the opposite gender and we begin to experience a new kind of attraction giving rise to disturbing emotions. At the same time, curiosity drives us to find out about the facts of life, through peer discussion and book reading. Before long, we find ourselves on the doorstep of adulthood, the vital time in our life when we look for a suitable life-partner to begin a relationship that will put to the test all the qualities that we have acquired earlier in life. Love, relation, and marriage then become matters of great importance. In old ages seeing our children getting married & leading a happy life and then seeing your grandchildren is your utmost happiness. 

In short the quest for happiness never ends till our death. We keep on searching, praying and struggling for the happiness. I would like to end this article with a quote of Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual and political leader, Voices from the Heart

“I don't know whether the universe, with its countless galaxies, stars, and planets, has a deeper meaning, but at the very least it is clear that we humans who live on this Earth face the task of making a happy life for ourselves.”