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We all want happiness. But not every one is happy. Some say wealth brings happiness. But if this is true then why are so many wealthy people unhappy? Some say the love of beautiful woman or women brings happiness. (The other side of the coin is to say that for women the love of a rich, successful man brings happiness.) But if this is true then why is it that so many men with beautiful wives are trapped in unhappy marital lives, and so are so many women with rich, handsome and successful husbands. Some say power brings happiness. But if this is true then why is that so many people in power end up committing suicide or being killed like wild dogs.
It is my contention that true happiness comes neither from huge amounts of wealth, nor from power. (However, having sufficient amount of money to support oneself and one's family is a prerequisite to happiness.) It comes not from any of the aforesaid things. True happiness comes first and foremost from being at peace with oneself. It also comes from contentment and from knowing that one is leading a virtuous life.
Let us explore this question of happiness and the perennial question of the purpose of life with which the question of happiness is intertwined.
I asked the question, 'What makes you happy and what you consider to be the purpose of your life?' to a number of people. First I asked a Communist. He said that the purpose of his life was to establish Communism in every country in the world. Then I asked a devout Christian who said that the purpose of his life was, and in his opinion my life's too ought to be, to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and to spread the message of the Bible to everyone. Then I asked a devout Muslim the same question and he replied that the purpose of his life was to spread the message of the Koran to everyone, especially to the non-believers. Then I asked a follower of the Hare Krishna group in Toronto the same question. He said that the purpose of his life was to chant the name of Lord Krishna and to spread his message to everyone.
Then I asked this question to a number of ordinary people of various religious persuasions and ethnic background. They all said that their main aim in life was to be happy. This answer confirmed what I had thought all along. Since no one wants to be unhappy, it can be deduced that everyone wants to be happy.
I found that people everywhere want to live in comfort and they want to be happy. Every one wants to accumulate enough money so that he or she can become financially self-sufficient. But many people, even after becoming self-sufficient financially, still hanker after money, which makes them unhappy. It seems that the needs of man for money never seems to end. The more one has, the more one wants which is the root cause of unhappiness.
I believe that one does not need too much money to be happy. If you doubt the truth of this statement look at the people in the rich countries who have a lot of money and those in poorer countries who have some of it but not too much. Having lived in both the West and the East and having interacted with ordinary people in both these countries, I can say with confidence that the people in the first category are not any happier than those in the second.
To be happy, you must be at peace with yourself. This is like a basic law of nature. This means that if you want to be happy you have to be assured that your life style entails not hurting other people. To illustrate this point, let us consider an extreme scenario. If you commit a murder, even if you get away without being caught by the authorities, nature will not let you be happy. The thought that you killed a human being will follow you everywhere you go and will not let you have a good sleep. In this case you would have only a few alternatives:
1. Report to the authorities that you committed a murder and ask for punishment.
2. Rationalize that the victim of a crime deserved to be killed. This is to say that if one killed Pol Pot who murdered millions of people, one would feel at peace even after the murder provided he rationalized his action on the ground that for killing a mass murderer one deserves not punishment but a reward.
3. If you are deeply religious you can explain your predicament to a priest or a member of the clergy whom you trust and revere and he could alleviate your misery by asking God for pardon or by asking you to pray to god for pardon.
4. Suffer the consequences of the crime by living in agony and mental anguish for the rest of your life, and finally going nuts or committing suicide.
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