Randomly pick out any newspaper, magazine or for that matter even a bunch of recycled pink folios

      which disperse like dandelions as soon as you grab your morning newspaper.         

      Having done that, browse through them to find any article which has the word ‘ happiness ’ in it.

      (I empathize with your urge to put the word in the adobe reader’s search box, unfortunately you need

      to put your eyes at work).

      These are the prototypes of how these articles might look like.

      1.) 10 ways to make your life HAPPIER

      2.) How to keep ‘him’ happy.

      3.) Workshop on HAPPINESS by Swami ‘I will rob you of all your riches repeating the same old mantra

      of “happiness within self”

      And so it dawns upon you that YOU, my dear friend, are living in a ‘happiness craving world’. Isn’t this

      the very reason you went through the ordeal of opening this link in the first place?

 

      Don’t worry…you are not the only one. I know of no one who claims to be ‘happy’ including myself.

      For what is happiness but the ‘HUMAN CREATED’ and ‘HUMAN CONTESTED’ concept?

      It would also come as a respite to many out there to know that the QUEST FOR HAPPINESS is not a

      by-product of the ‘fast paced’,’ hyper-linked’ , ‘over productive’, 21st century lifestyle, as claimed by

      many age OLD saints. In fact this silly concept bothered some great minds like Aristotle when he wit

      fully tried to define happiness.

 

      “ By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a

          philosopher. ”

               

      Now the question here is…if this whole ‘idea of happiness’ has the honour of confounding the greatest

      minds born in the human history, what can I possibly do to help you with?

      NOTHING.

      Now here is the catch, until and unless you make peace with the fact that HAPPINESS is nothing but

      an illusion you CANNOT AND WILL NOT BE HAPPY.

      Sound as absurd as it may, this is one of the biggest ironies of life.

      One might understand it through an example better .

      Lets just suppose you are cught in a traffic jam (which is more of a pressing reality than mere supposition

      in India... It is the very short cut you thought might save you 10 WHOLE MINUTES! You’ve got two options,

      1.)  Swear out loud. Aiming your curses out in the open amidst a bunch of honking cars.

      2.)  Know for a fact that there was a truck waiting to end your ‘minutes’ had you not taken this very

             route. AND BE HAPPY. PERIOD.

 

      So, do you get it ?

      Happiness is a story that you tell yourself so that you don’t end up swearing on anything and everything.

 

      PS- Those who thought they were happy, and the article has busted there illusion’s illusion. My heartiest

             condolences. 

             But you do know what LEO TOLSTOY said?

                                   

                                                                         “ If you want to happy. BE ”

 

-  By Yashvi Pandit