Discover happiness from within

Author(s): A L Gandhi
Publisher: Z_Jayantsensuri_Abhinandan_Granth_012046.pdf
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/250078/1

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DISCOVER HAPPINESS FROM WITHIN (Dr. A. L. Gandhi M.A., LL.B., Ph.D.) President Mahavir International, Jodhpur. Formerly Associate Professor, University of Jodhpur. Happiness has been cherished in all ages by all human beings, young and old, rich and poor, high and low. They have, in search of happiness, tried to satisfy their worldly wants and acquire wealth. But wants always multiply and it is beyond human energy and intelligence to concentrate on their satisfaction and fulfil them. Often an object of satisfaction and admiration, therefore, turns into dissastisfaction and disgust and as such hope and aspirations yield place to suffering and misery. Thus, there is little mental peace, tranquility and appreciation of higher values of life. Again a vast amount of human energy is wasted in frivolous and avoidable controversies. Consequently discipline cannot be cultivated over our body and mind and we cannot have light and blessedness. Even if fortune smiles on us for a time, it is liable to change. It is mostly shortlived. This brings us to the basic background of human psychology and culture. Man is always attracted towards pleasure and he keeps himself away from pain. In other words, one may say that every human being desires happiness and fears misery. Hence the question arises as to what happiness is, what its contents and means are and whether it is temporary or permanent. Can material satisfaction and sensual pleasures give real happiness ? If not, what is the true character of happiness? Ordinarily, a common man considers material objects as means of happiness and hence he devotes' his maximum time in collecting them and thereby derives sensual pleasure. In the sub-conscious mind, most of the people hold the belief that sensual pleasures and material satisfaction add to happiness and their absence is the cause of agony and misery. Hence, the society and the state emphasise on more production, more consumption and proper distribution of material products of food, cloth, housing etc. Thereby they aim at freeing man from want. The question, therefore, remains to be answered whether life will be happy after every one has been provided Roti, Kapda and Makaan. Taking it for granted, we cannot but think why the people of most of the western countries, who are at the climax of their prosperity, do not enjoy happiness and feel disturbed and perturbed, afraid and tense with worries and agonies. Hence it is desirable to ponder deeply over the questionwhat happiness is in fact and where we can attain it. Without getting clear answer to this crucial question, one cannot obtain true happiness. Sometimes one feels that happiness does not reside in sense objects but happiness and misery are there in imagination only. One, who is living in a Pucca house, feels happy when he sees others living in Kuchha houses, but when he sees rich persons living in bungalows, he feels unhappy and the desire to compete with them develops in him and run in the race of earning more, sometimes by unfair and foul means too and this vicious race never ends. Most of us today fall in this category and waste the whole life in mental tension and disturbance. Sometimes, our happiness is temporary. Wheri our desires are fulfilled, we feel happy but after sometime, when our new desires are not fulfilled, we feel unhappy. Is it not childish to feel happiness and unhappiness in this manner ? We notice that our desires are numerous, they are unlimited and go on increasing and the result is that the cycle of happiness, misery, unhappiness, agony, tension, disturbance etc. is attached to life and it becomes the cause of various diseases, physical and mental. Thus happiness is a mirage only. In fact, there is no happiness in fulfilment of desires. True happiness lies in absence of desires, rather in their fulfilment. One can evidently feel a decrease in tension parallel to the decrease in desires. Thus, we can naturally infer that a complete absence of desires will make us perfectly happy. If it is said that fulfilling of a desire works it out and thus one becomes happy, it is also wrong. Absence of desires is possible not in their fulfilment, but in their not arising at all. Pleasure felt in sensual objects never brings true happiness. It is more or less a type of misery only. Being full of tension in the absence of fulfilment of desires is nothing but misery. Happiness must mean complete absence of tension which is not possible in sensual pleasure. Hence sensual pleasure or fulfilment of material desires gives temporary happiness which is not real because it is related with bodily activities. In fact, real happiness lies within the inner soul and self-satisfaction. It is said that contentment is real happiness because, in contentment, there is the end of desires. Hence those, who desire happiness, must be soul-inclined and they will achieve real pleasure and happiness. But those, who are inclined towards external objects, can never be truely happy. [Continue on Page No. 35] SHRIMAD JAYANTSENSURI ABHINANDAN GRANTH/ENGLISH SECTION 36 दिप जलाओ ज्ञान के, दूर करो अज्ञान / जयन्तसेन आत्म सुखद, जीवन अमृत पान //