Happiness is "living completely in the present and enjoying the moment to the fullest." Interested folks may raise some pertinent questions like what do you mean by living in the present or enjoying the moment or enjoying the moment to the fullest.
We living beings live our lives, each marked by our share of peculiarities , whim, fancies and behavioral traits. We breath, we feel the air and have an existence in the society. However, mere living is very different from "living in the present".
Let us understand it through another question and illustrations. What is not living in the present. To be fearful or anxious about your tomorrow or time ahead is not living in the present. To be emotionally attached to your past and comparing your present with your past is akin to not living in the present. To be fretful or angry or excited or depressed or impressed or irritated or frustrated or passionate about anything of past or future, even the minute ahead or second left behind is same as not living in the present.
Then what exactly is living in the present. And what is living the moment to the fullest. It essentially means having your mind, body and soul completely focused at your present activity. This is possible only if we have no tension or desire or expectation of future. For example, let's say I am coding something. If I have even iota of tension about completion of task then I can not call myself happy.
In order to realize these words in one's life, one need to internalize certain belief and emotions. In short, one needs to overcome desire, expectation, frustration, irritation, passion, anger, and so on. In short one should control the feelings of krodh(anger), maan(ego), maaya(temptations), and lobha(greed).
The text of Geeta has some very interesting shlokas. If we understand their essence then we can definitely overcome the feeling of anger. "prakrteh kriyamanani
gunaih karmani sarvasah
ahankara-vimudhatma
kartaham iti manyate"
It means whatever we do, we tend to think that we are the actor but in reality it is our inherent traits which are interacting with each other and producing such actions. In a way, if we develop compassion towards each of the fellow being and just take 5 second pause and try to understand the cause behind their behavior then most of the time the angry feelings evaporate.
Same is the case with frustration or irritation. These are substitute feelings for anger. But if we try to decipher the cause of frustration or irritation, most of the time it lies in future. For example if I get stuck in traffic or stuck in a queue then mostly the reason of frustration is our desire reach home early or attend to a particular appointment. Let say you are not able to meet a deadline or study for an exam then reason of frustration would probably be our fear or anxiety regarding loosing our job or failure in the exam. Both are futuristic phenomenon.
I always believed some stress is necessary to pump myself for working hard. In psychology, this is called "eustress". However, nowdays I feel it is not necessary to get tensed or anxious to drive yourself in goal oriented manner. All it needs is peace of mind, and focus on task in hand to make your tomorrow a better deal.
I wish to write a lot on subject but will pick the topic again some other time. But I would like to submit one last point is about "fullest enjoyment". Living in the present is focusing on the task in hand. Enjoying the moment is free from tension or emotions of past or future. Enjoying to the fullest means "living with a smile". Smile not only on the face but also on the heart, on the mind and most importantly in your soul. It requires a big heart, filled with human values of compassion, empathy and self-lessness. It requires very deep understanding of uncertainty in our lives, finality of death, freedom from material desire, strong belief in hard work without expectation of rewards, and many other things.
But it all is easier said than done. Knowing is one thing but putting it in practice is entirely other thing. Possibly that is the reason, I am yet to find a single soul who I can call a happy soul. Today, I was seeing the advertisement of Sri sri Ravi Shankar conference. He has pioneered the art of living. I assume it must be arr of living happily. I am going to meet him soon. Hope to learn something more from him on the subject.
We living beings live our lives, each marked by our share of peculiarities , whim, fancies and behavioral traits. We breath, we feel the air and have an existence in the society. However, mere living is very different from "living in the present".
Let us understand it through another question and illustrations. What is not living in the present. To be fearful or anxious about your tomorrow or time ahead is not living in the present. To be emotionally attached to your past and comparing your present with your past is akin to not living in the present. To be fretful or angry or excited or depressed or impressed or irritated or frustrated or passionate about anything of past or future, even the minute ahead or second left behind is same as not living in the present.
Then what exactly is living in the present. And what is living the moment to the fullest. It essentially means having your mind, body and soul completely focused at your present activity. This is possible only if we have no tension or desire or expectation of future. For example, let's say I am coding something. If I have even iota of tension about completion of task then I can not call myself happy.
In order to realize these words in one's life, one need to internalize certain belief and emotions. In short, one needs to overcome desire, expectation, frustration, irritation, passion, anger, and so on. In short one should control the feelings of krodh(anger), maan(ego), maaya(temptations), and lobha(greed).
The text of Geeta has some very interesting shlokas. If we understand their essence then we can definitely overcome the feeling of anger. "prakrteh kriyamanani
gunaih karmani sarvasah
ahankara-vimudhatma
kartaham iti manyate"
It means whatever we do, we tend to think that we are the actor but in reality it is our inherent traits which are interacting with each other and producing such actions. In a way, if we develop compassion towards each of the fellow being and just take 5 second pause and try to understand the cause behind their behavior then most of the time the angry feelings evaporate.
Same is the case with frustration or irritation. These are substitute feelings for anger. But if we try to decipher the cause of frustration or irritation, most of the time it lies in future. For example if I get stuck in traffic or stuck in a queue then mostly the reason of frustration is our desire reach home early or attend to a particular appointment. Let say you are not able to meet a deadline or study for an exam then reason of frustration would probably be our fear or anxiety regarding loosing our job or failure in the exam. Both are futuristic phenomenon.
I always believed some stress is necessary to pump myself for working hard. In psychology, this is called "eustress". However, nowdays I feel it is not necessary to get tensed or anxious to drive yourself in goal oriented manner. All it needs is peace of mind, and focus on task in hand to make your tomorrow a better deal.
I wish to write a lot on subject but will pick the topic again some other time. But I would like to submit one last point is about "fullest enjoyment". Living in the present is focusing on the task in hand. Enjoying the moment is free from tension or emotions of past or future. Enjoying to the fullest means "living with a smile". Smile not only on the face but also on the heart, on the mind and most importantly in your soul. It requires a big heart, filled with human values of compassion, empathy and self-lessness. It requires very deep understanding of uncertainty in our lives, finality of death, freedom from material desire, strong belief in hard work without expectation of rewards, and many other things.
But it all is easier said than done. Knowing is one thing but putting it in practice is entirely other thing. Possibly that is the reason, I am yet to find a single soul who I can call a happy soul. Today, I was seeing the advertisement of Sri sri Ravi Shankar conference. He has pioneered the art of living. I assume it must be arr of living happily. I am going to meet him soon. Hope to learn something more from him on the subject.
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