In Pursuit of Happiness

I always wonder where one can find happiness, peace and true meaning of life. You always learnt different meaning of happiness throughout life. It’s interpreted in different way as Journey, milestone, achievement, mission, vision, satisfaction, fun, enjoyment, party etc.  At different stages of life, I found correlation in each or all of these words. Majority of the times it was a myth hidden by cover of reality.

As a toddler, we were curious and found happiness in almost everything in this life. We were both source and receiver of joyful moments in everyone’s life. As we grew-up, we became attached to material things in this world. Toys, chocolates, etc. were the fascination. As per my parents, I didn’t have many toys or ate chocolates compare to average kid. That might be the reason I was fascinated by this things during my schooling days.

Once we become more mature, we start understanding different nuances of life. We start getting burdened by expectation, competition, pressure, etc. and I don’t only mean studies but every aspect of our life. How we should perform, how we should dress, talk, behave, eat, dance, sing for everything the norms are created and we are supposed to follow those norms. We meet different people in life and we create different impressions about them like nice, cool, good, bad, mean, arrogant, etc. We have good time and bad times but in spite of all these things, we have some joyful moments in the life. Few of them we remember and cherish throughout life few disappear from brain just as speed of light.

When I first time went out of my town for engineering, my relatives had mixed thoughts. Some felt life outside is not an easy place and I would buckle up under pressure and wouldn’t survive. It was difficult initially to fit into the so called societal norms and etiquette's. I had never been outside my home and there was no one to teach me all those things. I was free bird initially with no control over height, range and speed but soon realized there is no place for freedom. I was subject of ridicule a lot of times from people but I was determined to succeed. The portion which was fun for others was learning for me to understand the nuances and life. To understand that there are rules to fly despite of infinite range, height and speed of the universe.

The engineering brought the best out of me as an individual who can develop his identity in this big world. I had lots of wonderful joyful moments in those 4 years in spite of all the troubles. After all what’s the meaning of joy without the troubles; world is place made only for survival of the fittest. I had answered a lot of critics and was a better and successful person. The milestone was crossed and path was laid for future success and happiness.

I am sure many people in this world have faced similar circumstances and they have tackled them with sheer will power to bring out success in life. Then why happiness eludes a lot of people in this case. They are successful, had great memories, wonderful moments throughout the journey and still something seems missing. This is where we need to understand the difference between Happiness and Pleasure.

Pleasure is momentary feeling that is stimulated by external senses. A good chat with friends, a nice meal, drinks with friends, success in studies or job, buying a new iPhone, anything stimulated from external events. Pleasure is important in life and can give us momentary feeling of happiness; however we will have to continue stimulating the external events in life for it. Few of these external events might become addiction when we run around always is pursuit of pleasure.

Happiness comes from within you; it’s a state of inner fulfillment and satisfaction. It’s an act or state which people can create by our own will. The smile on parents face when a toddler walks for first time. The satisfaction on mothers faces when kids eat properly and when she makes favorite food for them. The wish of writer to succeed with all challenges and obstacles in life. The desire of sportsperson to perform even with an injury forgetting all external pain. Happiness is the free bird not restricted by boundaries of this world.

As Quoted by Miranda Kate, “If you always choose pleasure you will never find happiness”.
Happiness is the most difficult willingly act created for mankind and no amount of external pleasure can bring this in your life. It’s a state of mind and an act of wisdom for which we work throughout our lifetime with a hope that sometime we will realize the ultimate need of life.

Sometime I don’t realize why I am sad
Sometime people don’t understand my emotions
Sometime I have hope in this world
Sometime they are shattered by people
Sometime I still act naïve and wait for that time
Sometime people would appreciate my emotions
Sometime life would understand me
Sometime it would give me a chance
Sometime my pursuit of happiness would be complete
Sometime… Maybe Sometime!!!