January 30, 2021
My dear children,
Greetings to all of you. You are observing these days so many people are suffering due to Covid -19 virus. Many people have died because of this pandemic. None of us want the virus to attack us and make us unhappy. I know all of you want to be happy always. It is a very good desire, There is no one in the world who does not wish to be happy. No one wants to live a sad, painful, miserable and unhappy life. We ask sometimes why people are unhappy. Many times we too are unhappy. Why? How to be happy always? Here below I am giving you some clues for lasting happiness. Please read carefully.
The title of this short article is, “Be a Creator of Happiness”. It means that you have two options in life. Either be a creator of happiness and live happily, or be a creator of unhappiness and live unhappily. Both are your creations. It is your choice, to be happy or to be unhappy. Please reflect over this point well.
Let us begin by asking the question, “What is happiness?” Happiness generally means finding satisfaction, contentment, experiencing a feeling of joy. When we think of happiness we imagine that whenever I get something that I want or when I get whatever I want I will be happy. Is it true?
Let us consider the case of giving a toy to an infant. For a few hours, or for one or two days the child will play with it and is happy with it. After that it will kick it off and will demand for another. Things of this world give us happiness, but temporarily. What are the things in this world, we feel can make us happy?
Sometimes we feel if we have wealth, lots of money and a comfortable and spacious house, we will be happy. Other times we feel if all my expectations are fulfilled, I will really be happy. At times we desire pleasures, parties and the company of friends, just to be happy. Some other times we feel success in work, great achievements and winning laurels will make us happy.
All these things can make us happy for a short duration. Once the situation changes, a new problem springs up, our mood changes and happiness disappears.
The question we need to ask is, how we can be really happy always. For this we should have primarily a correct idea or concept of happiness. Happiness is a state of being, state of mind; it is internal to us that means it is an internal condition of mind and heart. If it is really internal then external things cannot give permanent happiness. They may create certain conditions which can make us happy for a while. When the condition changes, happiness evaporates.
Dear children, you need to develop a correct understanding of happiness and train yourself to be happy and peaceful always. Certain things are necessary for life. Thus a comfortable house is necessary to live a normal life, but the house itself will not create happiness for you. The people who live in the house may cause you constant irritation and make your life miserable. It is also necessary to have money, but just because you bring home a large sum of salary every month, you will not be happy. The workplace may be a hell for you and you constantly face tensions and worries with your colleagues at the workplace. You may win first place in all the games and in all the sports you compete, but your teammates can create a lot of misunderstandings and accuse you falsely. You may get first place in the class in every exam and you may feel happy when you see the marks card, but it can be momentary. School life can be a cause for worry to you due to health issues or even your life at home can be full of turmoil. So external situations and things can never bring you lasting happiness in life. What brings lasting happiness in your life is your mental attitude. It is your internal attitude towards these things and events, or your approach to these things and events that can bring you real happiness.
What do we mean by internal or mental attitude? It is a state of mind. As you know the function of the mind is to think. “I think, therefore I am”, said a great French philosopher René Descartes. It means you are “thinking”, that is your thoughts or your attitudes, intentions or values that can determine the quality of your life. The primary aspect of your existence is your capacity to think. The thoughts can make your life happy or unhappy. The origin of your happiness is in your thinking. It is your way of looking at the reality or your mental attitude towards things and events that makes you happy or unhappy. Your thinking generates or gives birth to happiness.
Thought generates or gives birth also to worries and anxieties. If something wrong happens, it is not the event or actual fact that creates unhappiness but it is the impact of the thoughts that creates unhappiness. But our mind can control our thoughts. You are the master of your thoughts and you can create happiness by changing your thoughts, changing the way you look at anxiety, worry, failure and crisis in life. In other words you create a mental attitude of happiness. You become the creator of your happiness.
Thoughts can also create anxiety about the future, guilt about the past, and generate anger towards others, they can give birth to argument, disappointments, insecurity and feelings of shame; so thoughts can create every piece of mental suffering that we have in life and there is no suffering that is not created by thought.
This affirms that certain external events and situations are the occasions for the mind to create unhappiness. The events and situations themselves cannot make you happy or unhappy. It is the approach of your mind or how the mind perceives external situations that make you happy or unhappy. Your friend may say a bad word, but it depends on you to react. You may react with anger, or you can also simply ignore the remark made by him. You can even laugh at it and forget. Your reaction depends on the attitude your mind takes. Therefore it is important to train your mind to take the right attitude, which we call thinking.
Most of the time the situations and events are not under your control. They happen unexpectedly and even without your awareness. But your response to those situations and events is under your control. Accordingly you generate happiness or unhappiness to yourself. You are the creator of your happiness as well as unhappiness. If you think, the situation is bad for you, you create unhappiness, but you can also think that the situation cannot affect your life, you will be peaceful and your happiness will not be disturbed. Train your mind to respond positively to all persons, situations and events and you will be always happy. Your internal disposition of the mind will not be disturbed and that is what we call real happiness.
So, if you want to be happy, you need to eliminate all negative thoughts from your mind. The negative thoughts invariably distract and create unhappiness.
We are social beings. We live with others. As a result there will always be some disagreements, misunderstanding, conflicts, jealousy, quarrels and unhealthy relationships. All these are part of life as we live with our friends, neighbours and relatives. The question is what should be our attitude towards these? How can we make our life happy in spite of these? Train your mind to approach these things calmly and peacefully with a positive attitude. You will never lose your inner peace and you will be a mature person in the school and in the society.
One thing you should avoid strictly in order to be happy. It is brooding over the past or current events and situations. Something you interpret as negative, evil and bad for you and you go on thinking about it. This is called brooding. Many people make it a habit of speaking and thinking again and again about things which make them unhappy and they remain always unhappy. This is a very bad habit which you should as a student be careful never to cultivate.
On the other hand, cultivate some good habits that can make you happy. For example, happiness is satisfaction in life. It is most important to feel satisfied in life. Learn to be contented and satisfied. Be content that you have good parents, good siblings, good school, good teachers and good friends. Be content that you are healthy, that you can study well, that you can play well. Make a habit of being satisfied with what you eat, what you do and what you study. This will be a great help to be happy always. We need to be happy not because everything is good in the world, rather we can see the good in everything.
Dear students, one thing you should know, that you can experience happiness in spite of the problems you face in life. You should educate yourself to find happiness by creating contentment in life. Happiness cannot be pursued, it must be generated. It must emerge from the heart and must become an internal lasting experience.
To conclude, again I exhort you all, be creators of happiness. Let us make a firm option for our life to create happiness for ourselves. It means that we should train our mind to think positively and interpret events and situations rationally with a calm and cool mind. No external event or outside person can steal away your mind and your mental attitude. You are the master of your mind. So employ your mind attentively to all that happens around you and see that you remain internally peaceful and contented. You will become a creator of happiness.