Happiness - The Search and the Goal

 

 Happiness - The Search and the Goal

 

From birth to death
All are in search of happiness
Often not knowing at all
What constitutes happiness? 

 

So far hardly anyone has said
They were indeed happy and peaceful
All have woes to unload
Intensity differs from person to person

 

One thing which is common to all
All of them are sad and grieving
In this process they fail to see
What they possess and what they lack

 

Looking for elusive happiness everywhere
Days are spent in vain
Then one day the death overtakes
Yet the hankering remains strong

  

If there is a rebirth
Then the show repeats 
So from life to life
The journey goes on unendingly

 

Is there no way out or path
To escape from this self made pain?
Let us pause and look awhile
And possibly learn something

Look at a child, merry and happy
It has no care in the world at all      
No child sits and brood
Crying about happiness not found

 

Look again at animals
Contented, happy and peaceful,
You don’t see an animal howling
All along without any cause

 

Then why do the human beings
Keep to a weeping mode
Lamenting to all and sundry
About their plight and destiny?

 

All are bitter in one way or other
Scale differs, but the crux remains
Is there no way out or path?
To escape from the self made painful path

 

Think again, who was really happy
Let us peep into the history
Mighty monarchs, dictators and others
All had their own stories of woes

 

Budha,Jesus, Rama, Yudhishtir
Kamsa, Ravana,Duryodhana, Aurangazeeb
Ashoka, Shivaji, Akbar, Gandhiji
Tilak, Netaji, Tagore or Shakespeare

 

Let us therefore learn to know
Happiness does not come to all
By desires, power or with wealth
It is something inborn and inside

 

Friends, relatives, society et al
Wife, children, office and boss
Don’t give peace or worry
Your thinking and actions do

 

Don’t blame others for your thoughts
Immaturity and skewed views
Stop blaming and quit lamenting
Change your views and be happy

 

Learn to accept the world as it is
Using your emotional intelligence
Sooner you realise this truth
Journey later will be smooth

 

It is time one desires joy
Then work ceaselessly for attaining it
Eschewing quarrel, hatred and ill will
Throw out all that takes away joy

 

Are we striving to achieve happiness?
Then we should not indulge in negativism
Choose well the path you take
Then happiness will be within your reach

 

Today all are miserable, because
They have taken the wrong way
How can then the right destination be reached,
If you have taken the wrong train?

 

Let us change the track of thoughts
Let us board the correct train
Let us watch diligently our path
Lest we don’t stray again.

 

Happy you are, if you think so
Miserable, if that is what you think
The environment is neutral,
Your thinking  only makes the difference

 

All religions repeat the same thing
That mind controls your moods
Learn to check your minds
If you hanker for happiness soon

 

Choice is yours to be happy and contented
Or to be grumpy and miserable
Choose well  with care and diligence
Tomorrow may be too late

 

For what  indeed are you  looking
That you don’t  really have  now
Do you lack eyesight or hearing?
Or suffer from something incurable

 

Do you lack some limb in you body
Or lack some social security
Do you lack job or income?
Or house, children and friends

 

Have you been hit by a cyclone?
Or were you a victim of earthquake
Have you lost someone in war?
Or in some disasters like bomb blasts or riots

 

What is earthshaking that you have faced?
You feel like grieving forever
In fact have you lost anything at all
To lament aloud to one and all.

 

In fact nothing you have lost
Count your blessings in life
Your wrong thinking is the culprit
From which you have to come out

 

World can meet the need of all
It can’t meet the greed of even one
Is it the need that really haunts you ?
or the unlimited greed of the mind

Many in fact choose misery
They like to grumble than laugh
They have made it their motto
Even God can’t help such people

 

Learn not to blame God, religion, others
For your self made woes and moans
Decide now to come out of it
To make life happy for self and others

 

There are plenty already sad  and wailing
Make the life a little smooth for all around
For your own time here is not unlimited
Is there any doubt at all on that count?

None of the above is new or earthshaking
Only practitioners are lacking
Make a difference to all those you meet
Don’t make a delay as time is running out

 

All want peace and happiness to one's dear and near 
But  act in a manner opposite to that
When will we learn, oh, when at all
Not after the retirement or death of the individual

 

Let us choose concord to discord
Let us choose welfare to selfishness
Let us choose happiness to misery
And last but not the least
Let us choose harmony to hatred.