Happiness

There I was, my toddler self, sitting right in front of the television set, eyes focused and widened to absolute maximum capacity, watching and ogling towards my favorite show at the time, a mere documentary on “Deep Space” and “Space Exploration”. I was truly fascinated seeing men and women floating around in bulky suits of white, wearing reflective round helmets of black, above a magnificent image of our glistening blue Earth. Then the camera panned slowly away from our floating beings and towards absolute blackness. Man on the television said “This is what astronauts see when they look away from the Earth, total darkness…”
Darkness…
The word struck an immediate chord in me, firing up a burning question in my little head. I shot up from my seat then.
I have to ask this question as soon as possible!
Then, going to my usual person of aid and running straight into the kitchen, ‘Mom! Mom!’ I demanded.

She turned around, her face looking worried and concerned, as if something had been quite bothering her. ‘Yes, son…’ she replied in a soft voice, neglecting her troubles.

‘Mom, why do people go in space during night time? Why cannot they go during the day? It wouldn’t be as dark then…’

She, upon hearing this, processed it for a while then smiled, chuckled ever so slightly, and shook her head upon realizing the sincere manner of my silly asking. Her face had then changed, her eyes had lit up, and just for fraction of a moment she truly smiled, getting lost in my innocent form of queries. And I particularly do not remember what she answered then but, what I can never forget was that moment, that exact moment when she smiled, her laugh, her happiness stays vivid in my memory. And even for a singular moment in time it was but, it absolutely was.

Following this, I further wondered one particular day and I ended up thinking,
How weird is the way we laugh?
…the way we smile?
This inevitable led me again running up to my mother and asking ‘Mom, why do we laugh?’ to which she simply answered ‘Son, we laugh to show our joy, to show that we are happy.’

Happy…
A word pretty simple but, it managed to run circles around my head then.

And so today, I require all of our collective focus towards it. Not the laugh, not the smile but, the reason behind it all, the pure and unfiltered Happiness.

Now, before proceeding any further, let us take a step back and ask ourselves one seemingly simple question.
“What does happiness mean to me?”
Take a minute or two and answer it. Write it down either on paper or in our individual brains but, we should to do it, and not for anyone rather, for our very own selves. Let us scribble it down and analyze it word by word, action by action. Read it out aloud. What does it all say?

Now, if we hear all of our separate answers, they quite interestingly would seem to be different from one other. And why is that?
Because of one inescapable yet fundamental reason i.e. Happiness, as common as it sounds, does not mean the same to each of us. It is highly relative.

Just as a favorite toy given to a toddler would make him/her extremely happy while giving this to a complete stranger might not inculcate a similar reaction; our individual happiness depends on who we are and what situation exactly are we in. Happiness might mean passing an exam or it might mean getting to meet a loved one after long. But, whatever it is, it does mean something. Happiness is the one thing which we are in constant pursuit of. We need it, we so desperately need it. But, do we know of it?
Yes, do we actually know what happiness is?

Because today, as it stands, there are still people out there in shockingly enormous numbers who cannot even answer our seemingly simple question of before. Somewhere along the way they forgot everything about it.
“What does happiness mean to me?”
They do not know. They have no clue. So, the real question here is “How did this happen?”
How?
For it, there is a seemingly simple answer which lies in understanding that happiness is not simply an act, it is a habit.

We wake up, we brush our teeth, we have breakfast, we go to work and we do a million different things in our day. But does this quota of our daily lives involve “Doing what makes us happy”? Do we ever stop to think “What am I doing for my own happiness”? Do we ever stop to wonder “What hobby am I going to practice today”?
“What am I going to write today”?
“What am I going to sing today”?
Do we ever care to ask “What is making me happy”?

While some of us do, many of us don’t. We somehow become so self-indulgent in merely existing; that we forget we aren’t actually living. And day by day, as they pass, we start forgetting parts of our lives, we start forgetting parts of who we are and ultimately forget the true meaning of being Happy.

So, is this it? Is our happiness then completely lost? Is what all we have forgotten never coming back?
Well, fortunately for us, it absolutely can come back. And remembrance is the key to it. But we must be willing for it. We must start remembering, start learning what it really means to be happy.

Learn.

Now, how do we learn to walk, we practice. How do we learn to keep fit, we exercise. And how do we learn to be happy, we do acts of happiness and we practice them daily. They could be anything. Maybe one is happy to listen to music while one is happy making it. Maybe one feels happy helping poor and the needy while one wants to sing and dance. If it truly makes us happy and we neither cause nor gather any harm from it, then why shouldn’t we do it? Let’s find and remember these acts which make us feel true delight from within. Let’s find them together and make it a rule to practice at least one of these acts daily in our lives. No matter how busy we get, let’s take an oath, let’s remember and know what happiness truly means. Because being happy comes hand in hand with the knowledge of being happy. And the only way we gain knowledge is by questioning ourselves time and again, “What is making me happy?” If we don’t find any answer, we shouldn’t stop or give up entirely rather, we should search deep within. After all, each of us deserves to know what happiness is. And to know, we need to ask, and to ask we need effort, and for effort we need to think.

Think!

Now, go ahead and ask, desperately ask yourself “What does happiness mean to me?” Answer it. Cannot answer? Search for it, dig deep, make effort and start thinking. It is your own life, your own world, go out and know happiness, create happiness and spread it to wherever you possibly can, show others what it means for you to be happy, so as for those who have forgotten to not be forgotten.

As we now head towards the end of this post, I generally try to conclude it all with a hearty analogy connecting the main topic to our individual and reading minds. But today, I am afraid; it all does not seem possible. Happiness in itself possesses an incredible amount of depth and reality inside, some of which is still left untouched and unscathed in this mere blog post. But I don’t want it to stay untouched, I want to know it, I want to tell it, and only through the best way I possibly can.

So, stay tuned…
For my next blog post would be an attempt at explaining the true and untouched reality of happiness in today’s modern world.

Until then, ask, search, think, and answer.

“What does happiness mean to me?”