TAKING HAPPINESS FOR GRANTED

In his column Sunday with T. Selva, the columnist touched on the subject of the general elections and also the subject of happiness. He mentioned that feelings of anxiety, worry, anger, fear, hatred, greed, jealousy and disappointments all surfaced in many homes over the past week following the nomination day of the 12th general election and cited some examples of people feeling disatisfied, unhappy or worried because they either were not nominated or worried that they might not win.
He then posed the question "Have you asked yourself why you feel frustrated despite being fortunate with a decent shelter and three meals a day when compared to others?" Yeah, right on! How true. Selva further wrote:
"We often think that we would be happy with what we don’t have than what we are blessed with. Yearning for more and more unrealistically leads us to greed, which shares a thin borderline with need, and both tend to get blurred when our desires increase.
Eventually greed overtakes the sense of our need and over a period of time this elusive fantasy takes us nowhere but to depression and unhappiness.
The way to getting depressed is to just sit and say “what about me” and “what will happen to me” repeatedly and soon you will get it; that is depression.
Everyone seeks freedom and we are only bestowed with it when we stop worrying and embark on simplicity to dissolve our ego.
Many people take happiness for granted and not value the happiness they have but only realise it after they lose it when a tragedy strikes.
Do you know that stress develops when we try to attain something beyond our reach?
Individuals who think that they can attain happiness through gaining power and positions should be aware that one hour of worry is equivalent to eight hours of hard work.
So keep acting without worrying about the outcome of action and move on as life is a journey and all setbacks are for us to learn more about life.
Accepting what had happened and moving ahead is the only logical way of life than brooding over something lost."
According to the Mahabharata, one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the remedy for sorrow is to stop brooding over it because if the mind dwells on sorrow, it freshens and multiplies. It says one should eradicate mental suffering with wisdom.
Every individual should regard the missed opportunity as a message to realise our full potential.
One of the errors we frequently make is to engage in activities that do not match us and we become aware of it the hard way when we find out that our efforts are not fruitful.
Take one year as an example and analyse it as to how you spend the time daily.
You will find that 20% is spent on sleeping, 15% on the road, 25% at work, 5% on having some conversation and the balance 35% on worrying and pondering about your future.
Have you ever asked if this is what life is all about and what you are searching for?
Some of us spend all our lives trying to correct events, people and situations and later find it impossible to rearrange things.
Everything that is happening in our lives is for a reason and at the free will of the Almighty.
All you need to do is to just surrender and let life take its natural course to consciousness and wisdom.
Next Saturday is polling day and again there will be those in the fray who will face success – or failure – and some will be celebrating while another group may leave with a heavy heart.
Remember crises are challenges thrown in your path by fate in order to test you.
My advice to them is to be brave and not fear failures in life".

T. Selva, The Star’s Sunday Metro Editor, believes that service to mankind should be unconditional and every individual can do it selflessly without being elected.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/3/2/sundaymetro/20482101&sec=SundayMetro