Everyone says “Do that which makes you happy”. Or “Follow the path that makes you happy”. Thus, everyone talks of being happy, staying happy or living happy. Everyone in the world, without exception, want to be happy. Every action of us is aimed at it. Happiness became a matter of great importance. Be happy. Party harder. Enjoy. Have a blast… infinite synonyms! So much so, Prof Jan-Emmanuel De Neve discovered that there is a link between money and happiness. Bhutan talks of ‘Gross Domestic Happiness”! The American constitution talks of “Pursuit of Happiness”.
No one has ever asked in the history of human kind, nor was it debated in the History of philosophy – ‘Why should we be happy’? Why should I strive for happiness? This question does not mean ‘I want to be unhappy’! Why should I be unhappy? No one desires to be unhappy. Everyone wants to be happy!
Moot Questions remain. Why do you want to be happy? And why do you not wish to be unhappy? Both goals are greatly desired by people. To be happy and not to be unhappy. We have no answer.
Let us leave humans a side. Let us take an example of: A Lion. A Tiger. A Rabbit. They all are neither happy nor unhappy. They eat, hunt and sleep… without being happy or unhappy. Similarly, a rose… it blooms beautifully. It is neither happy nor unhappy. On the other hand, a beautiful man/woman desires to be happy. They are worried people too… they constantly search for ways & means to be preserve their beauty…happiness, unlike a rose flower.
In a word, there is no other animal or plant or a thing that desires to be happy other than a man! Man, alone wants to be happy. Why does he want to be happy? Our religions think of ways to make the God happy! How stupid it sounds! If you were to fast or visit a temple/church to pray… we believe that God will be happy. Is it so easy to make God happy? If God can be made happy, then he can be made unhappy too!
I believe that the existence is neither happy nor unhappy. Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Or we can say that the existence is both happiness and unhappiness combined. It means the same as neither happy nor unhappy. Fools find difference between them and grater fools argue! If the God can be made happy or unhappy, He is no more a God!
Tatvam Asi – That Thou Art – Chandogya Upanishad. When we are That, then we can either be happy or unhappy. It is that desire of which the Buddha talks… the desire to be happy. No. Remove happiness, the desire itself disappears!
Take a look at what the famous Italian footballer said about celebration/happiness: “When I score, I don’t celebrate because it’s my job. When Postman delivers letters, does he celebrate”? I fully agree with Mario Balotelli.
We all are simply leading our lives … without being happy or unhappy. When everybody tries to be happy, then no one will be happy! When all 1000 people try to enter the room, then none actually enters.
I am Tatvam Asi. I am That. I neither feel happy or unhappy. I am that God!
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
