Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Peace of mind and Happiness



"Happiness is state of mind."

"You are what you give people to think about you."

Few days back i came across a friend's post who was very happy. So happy that you could feel the positive energy emanating from the post. And then suddenly my mind started monkey-ing around. What exactly is happiness? How do i define it and where and how does mind come into the picture? I know these questions seem very absurd or may even be foolish. But my mind was out of anything important or creative work for last few days. so it started churning strange thoughts. As usual these thoughts find their way to this blog.

Every person has his/her own definition of happiness. Defining happiness is in itself a futile exercise. Happiness is something that you feel. Similarly disappointment or sadness is also something you feel. So basically happiness and unhappiness both are just feelings. Feelings manifest themselves in terms of emotions. We exhibit hell lot of emotions. I can exhibit my happiness and unhappiness in many ways.

Emotions and feelings are controlled by mind. Now that is a statement. Ever wondered why women cry even when they are happy and also when they are unhappy. We often hear people saying "he/she controlled her emotions. he/she did not break down". See my point. We can control our emotions. Isn’t it. We can control our feelings. Let me say "our mind" instead of "we". Mind has control over everything. If feelings and emotions were random, then for example why don’t we get attracted to not so good looking people. Its the work of mind. It sees. It senses. It calculates. It rejects or suppresses. But when you spend some time with a not so good looking guy and understand his/her more intimately, you start liking that person. Again the mind is at work.

This is not true only for "love". Its true for all other emotions/feelings. Take for friendship. You just don’t form friendship until and unless you understand and feel good about that person. You don’t trust anybody until its proven and your mind accepts the proof. The mind is all powerful.

If "happiness is state of mind" ,so is "unhappiness" as well. The problem is on most occasions we lose control over our mind. Not over our emotions.

"State of Mind" is under our control. "State of mind" is not what we should try to achieve. "Peace of mind" should be the ultimate goal. Is not that what we talk of, when we say meditation.

Meditation is nothing but an exercise to control the mind and keep it at peace.

How many times have we not heard people say " I am happy with ____ but some how i am not comfortable with ____" Like i am happy with my career and job but at the same time am not comfortable doing meager tasks.

Most often we may be happy but not at "Peace of Mind". Lot of us get confused about the difference between being at peace with oneself and being happy.

Unlike happiness, having peace of mind is not a feeling or emotion. Peace of mind is something you can not exhibit with a single emotion. It is reflected in your behavior, your speech, your work, your confidence and your thinking.

We should try to achieve peace of mind rather than try to be happy. A psycho is happy doing what he does. But does he have peace of mind. No. Because his mind is restless and he finds happiness in being restless and frustrated. As i said earlier "being happy" has different meanings for different people. But having peace of mind is nothing but bliss. And meaning of it is universal.


I might have totally gone wayward trying to explain happiness and peace of mind in my opinion. As such it is a very difficult task. But the point i wanted to state was : "Peace of mind is what we should try to achieve. Happiness and unhappiness are just emotions which can be controlled and which are more dependent of external factors."


I know lot of you will get confused or treat this post as something totally not understandable. But truth is i myself feel the philosophy of happiness and peace of mind is out of comprehension for people like us.

3 comments:

Chaitra said...

True, peace of mind should be the ultimate goal.
Again a good writing.

GR said...

I am soooo happy!!! :) believe me you are gifted to write anything at all with so much of ease and simplicity. And one small thing i wanted to say is... may be we all have our definitions of attaining peace of mind... but when a man is happy.. peace of mind is somewhat easier to feel (or achieve) than when he is disturbed or hurt... :) atleast this is the way i felt peace in my life.

-Gouri

Aham Brahmasmi said...

You are right. When you are happy its easier to acheive peace of mind. But in my opinion peace of mind is the highest state of being. True peace of mind is possible through self enlightment. When you feel indifferent to all shades of emotions and feelings you are at peace of mind. Nothing can hurt you when you detach yourself from normal emotions. Peace of mind is also a state of balance. In meditation we try to control our "panch indriyas". That is nothing but keeping in control our seses and i strongly beleive senses are the root cause of hurt or happiness. Hmmm I guess this post needs a followup post :)