Elusive happiness

Elusive Happiness

           of late when I look at things around me and events unraveling  I  see a state of flux,everything seems to change,uncertainity looks stark at face . Life indeed was always uncertain ;as legend says Damascus sword always hung  on our head but we had remained in a  cocoon too caught  up with materialistic pursuits and pleasures .It had slipped out of our collective conscience  that everything is transitory or maya as hindu scriptures say  .

                                                   when  we  were  children,  fairy tales always ended with "happily ever after" note .The  king and   the queen ,cherubic princess and prince after all the adventures ,escapades,finally were united and they happily lived ever after. It was so naive of us to believe it as truth.                   
  Little did we realize, that happiness is as transitory,ephemeral as our life itself. we,sentinent beings always feel reaching certain goal or acquiring  name, fame could  make us happy but that too seems a myth. When I  see highly successful people, unhappy after having carved their way up ; when they have acquired name,fame that any   layman could ever dream of .Yet again  after fleeting moments of high, they experience void and  happiness seems to be a mirage for them.They are always on look out for something. It sets me thinking as to  where is happiness?? what is happiness..
Happiness means different to different people. Most of us feel ,material gains,power,.appeasing this physical body gives us happiness . For some, giving up everything is happiness.for a child mother's smile brings all the happiness.for  a doctor, saving a patient's life at  nick of time, is happiness.But then again happiness is experienced  only in short spurts.
Happiness seems like a fleeting, colourful   butterfly wandering  in the  garden of life . Just when we thought we  caught it in our  grasp; it is gone.But when we lose interest, it just comes along fluttering ,enticing us  for yet an another chase  .'how strange are ways of life'.As life force meanders through time, happiness just peeps in at some unexpected twists and  turns  and just as we were getting a whiff of it , it vanishes as a beautiful dream.

Man has the habit of measuring everything. Accordingly happiness index quotient charts are prepared to measure happiness quotient. Various parameters are taken into account and India just stands at 144th place .Are we really such an unhappy lot ?.Happiness is as ephemeral as life. They say if one sits in anticipation  of it we would  miss small increment of happiness which we take for granted in our daily life.

Maybe looking inward as always said by great saints , living life without much expectations,just staying put and enjoying small pleasures like watching rain fall,listening to patter of rain,first snow silently falling on leaves of trees ,playing with innocent child,playing with little kitten

 happiness  is seeing the shadow of leaves playing on  window sill,solving a complex problem after many attempts,helping somebody in need and the look of gratitude on their face is happiness,the site of monk who is happy  giving up everything  and the list goes on. Happiness is not a destination but a jouney ,a journey within I guess.our scriptures always said, our very  being  is happy   in  it's true nature "sat chit Ananda"then if so why look for it outward .A little child does not need much to be happy .It very nature is being happy (satchitanada)so cherishing every moment whatever situation we are in and also training our mind to find happiness in which ever condition we are in, go a long way to be happy.