Pursuit of Happiness

Contributed by :Mrs. Twinkle Thakkar

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Life has the potential to become a song of bliss, but there is every possibility of missing it too. It depends: you can make it, you can destroy it. Out of one hundred, ninety-nine point nine percent of people destroy their song of bliss. Then their life is nothing but a cry, a scream of pain and agony. But they have chosen it that way; nobody else is ever responsible.

This is the first truth to be learned in life: that you are always responsible, nobody else. With that comes great freedom, because with that all alternatives are open. If you think that somebody else is responsible then you are a slave; then nothing is open. Then you have to be what you are. If your life is a tragedy then it has to be a tragedy because others are responsible; unless they change, nothing can be done about it. You don’t have any freedom.

And that is the reason why millions of people live in misery: they think others are creating their misery. Nobody is creating your misery, nobody can create it, and nobody can create your bliss either. It is a totally individual phenomenon. It is just your work upon yourself. And the most strange thing is: to create misery is difficult and to create bliss is easy, but people always choose the difficult thing because the difficult thing always gives them an ego-trip.

The ego is not interested in easy things but is interested only in difficult things. The more impossible a thing looks, the more attractive it feels for the ego because the ego feels a challenge, and only through challenge can it conquer, can it prove to the world “I am somebody special”. Misery gives you challenge, bliss is very simple. Trees are blissful, birds are blissful. It needs no special talent to be blissful. To be miserable one needs talents, one has to be really very very clever to be miserable. Bliss is innocent; you can be blissful without any education, but you cannot be miserable without any education, remember! It is very difficult. You need degrees, universities, mm? then only do you become skillful?

So the first truth has to sink deep in the heart: ‘I am always responsible for whatsoever I am. Bliss or misery, this is my choice. If I have chosen to be miserable, then there is no need to be sad about it; this is my choice and I am doing my thing’. Feel happy that you have succeeded in being miserable! If this is not your choice, drop it immediately, drop all those patterns that create it and start creating new patterns, new doors from where bliss starts flowing.

For example, the person who wants to be miserable has to think in terms of fighting with life. The person who wants to be blissful has to be a non-fighter, surrendered to life, in a kind of let-go. The person who wants to be miserable has to create great ideals, has to make impossible demands upon himself. Then only can you be miserable; otherwise you will not be miserable. You have to be this, you have to be that, and when you cannot be, frustration settles in.

The man who wants to be blissful has no ideals at all, he is a non-idealist; he is a realist and lives moment to moment with no ideals. You cannot frustrate him because he has no expectations.

The miserable person always condemns himself because he is not rising high enough to fulfill the demands. He is a constant condemnor; he lives in self-condemnation. The blissful person is very accepting of himself. He makes no demands. He is relaxed, at ease with himself; he loves himself as he is. So you have to watch: that which creates misery, drop it; and that which brings bliss like a flood, create it in you. So let your life become a celebration, and it is up to you!

The key is to find a way to be happy wherever you now are on your way to where you really want to be. It does not matter where you are; where you are is shifting constantly. Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start. So it is up to us to turn our attention to where we want to go. And that's the difference between making the best of something and making the worst of something. 

After all, "The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself".- Ben Franklin