THE KEY TO HAPPINESS

IT LIES IN LEARNING OF THE DIFFERENT WAYS IN WHICH WE CAN RISE AND LIVE ANEW EVEN AS WE KEEP FALLING

- RAJ CHENGAPPA

IT may seem odd to be talking of happiness when the world has barely emerged from the immense grief two-plus years of the Covid pandemic inflicted on us. Or seen much strife, including the debilitating war in Ukraine that, if allowed to fester, could end up as the war of the worlds. Or to usher a new year with joy when there are dire predictions of a global recession that could lead to massive job cuts, high inflation and heightened misery.

Yet it is precisely why we should be searching for answers to the secrets of happiness. For, as Mahatma Gandhi put it, Strength does not come from winning. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” So it is with the quest for happiness—how do you rise even as you keep falling and live anew? The first of the four noble truths enunciated by the Buddha was accepting that the world was full of suffering. The remaining three go into the causes and the paths to attain moksha, the ultimate liberation from the seemingly endless cycle of birth and death. The question of how best to do that then itself becomes the quest.

Since 2012, the UN has engaged an independent agency to bring out a World Happiness Report and rank the happiest countries. To assess a nation’s state of happiness, the global survey relies on three key markers of well-being: the person’s current life evaluation, positive emotions and negative effects. Interestingly, the study found that positive emotions like laughter, enjoyment or learning something new figure twice more frequently in the answers than negative feelings like worry, sadness and anger. The world, it seems, is learning to cope far better than before.