Ask most people 'what they want from life?'. They will usually say 'they want to be happy.'
Inspite of this great yearning, happiness eludes most of us. Maybe we try too hard to be happy. Like chasing our own shadow, whatever we get does not satisfy us, because it is not real.
In our desire to be happy we run from pillar to post. We have erroneously learnt the wrong lessons, that people, things and possessions will make us happy. That status, money and influence will lift the gloom that shadows many of us.
'Consume, exploit, discard, and hoard to be be happy'. This is the constant din of modern society.
Yet at the end of the day we feel cheated and unfulfilled.
Even the Universe is not enough, when we attempt to seek happiness, particularly outside of ourselves. This is because happiness is not an object or a goal. Happiness is a state of existence, a state of mind.
Happiness is most visible during the stage of childhood. Where innocence envelops us. The child unperturbed by the past and unconcerned about the future lives in the present. That is why children are happy just enjoying the passage of time.
While we teach our children about life, they are teaching us what life is all about.
(Pictured above are the authors grandsons TeghVir Singh and Aryan Singh)
