I still remember and follow the age-old saying: if wealth is gone, nothing is gone, if health is gone, something is gone but if character is gone, all is gone. If you have good health, you do your work vigorously; earn regularly and enjoy your food to the full. This saves you the trouble of going to a doctor off and on and, thus, reduces the expenses on medical care.
Blessed with all these advantages, a healthy man is, undoubtedly, a happy and lucky being. Likewise, a man of good character a command respects of his fellow-beings and earns name and fame that are found to be necessary for real happiness.
Fools are those who seek happiness in power and pelf. They fail to understand that ‘uneasy lies the head that wears a crown’. The bitter fact of life is that riches bring selfishness, greed, lust, dishonesty and falsehood, coupled with pride and worries. And where these things exist, happiness eludes.
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True happiness has nothing to do with the comforts and luxuries of life or the materialistic possessions at our disposal. Happiness is something that cannot be bought with gold. Of course, there are certain essentialities of happiness. The first is, as already mentioned, sound health in body and mind. A person whose body is afflicted with any kind of disease can never be happy, howsoever rich he might be.
The second requirement for happiness is peace of the mind and self-contentment. These days’ people are far from the tranquility of mind and this is because of our mad race for money, money, money. It is rightly bemoaned that ‘getting and spending we lay waste our powers’. We are leading an unhappy life because we are engulfed in a competition with others.
Our wants and longings are multiplying unchecked. The more we have, the more we crave for. So if we want true happiness in life, we will have to change our attitude towards life. Wants must be reduced to the minimum.
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Next is the spirit of service to mankind. A man running after pleasure cannot have this spirit because he has no time to spare for others’ welfare. It is only the man of thought and action who lives for others. He does his duty sincerely without bothering his head for the results. He does his action and is not concerned with reward.
He works for others without any self-interest. And this rewards him with happiness because he is free from the poison of hatred, fear, jealousy and intolerance. He does not run away from the actual world of work, love and truth.
Lastly, it is the regulated, disciplined, pious life that leads to happiness. Those who have an unshaken faith in God and surrender themselves to His will find happiness knocking at their door. Such persons remain cheerful in whatever situation they may find themselves in the world.