“Be the reason someone smiles today”

Maa Dr Hansaji Yogendra
President, Indian Yoga Association

The definition and the feeling of happiness differ from person to person. For a hungry person, the first morsel of food can lead to happiness; for a person who is in pain and gets some relief can be happy; for someone who has been away from their family for a long time and meeting them one day can make them happy. So you see how the proportion of our happiness keeps varying from one external factor to another?

We must stop deriving our happiness from our bodies and materialist things around us. Generally, the source of our happiness is also the cause of our unhappiness. For example, you buy an expensive car and that gives you happiness. But it is the same car that can also give you unhappiness. When the car gets towed, or when you don’t get the parking spot, or when it gets its first scratch, it all leads to unhappiness.

Let me share a story of Rabia with you, who was trying to teach this same concept. On a dark night, she started walking towards the highway from her hut. Reaching the highway, she fanatically started searching for something. On seeing her in trouble, a few passersby asked her what she was looking for. She answered: “I am looking for my gold.” “Where did you lose it?” “In my hut,” she said. This confused the helpers, they asked: “Then why are you trying to find it over here?” “Because there is light over here and my hut is in complete darkness.” The helpers assured her that they would light candles in her hut and help her find her lost gold. This is exactly what Rabia was trying to teach them: that you will find your happiness exactly where you lost it.

When we complain about body pain, we must not get happy with some temporary relief. Instead, using Rabia’s logic, we must try to find the root of the problem and cure it at the base.

In Yoga, the state of being in permanent joy and happiness is known as Ananda or bliss. All the happiness that we derive from materialistic things is nothing compared to the happiness that we get from being useful to others. Have no expectations, be yourself and do your duty by being there for others and helping them without expecting anything in return, fill yourself with nothing but love, and that is true Ananda.

Once there was a professor who knew all the famous personalities. The servant of this professor had a son who was looking for a job. The servant asked the professor for the favor of calling his industrial friend and taking his boy in as a helper. Initially, the professor straight away refused, thinking ‘Why should I do it?’ Then he thought, ‘Why not? What do I have to lose in this? It will just help the boy to stand on his feet.”’So he called his friend who agreed because he was actually looking for a helper. For the servant, the professor was no less than God.

The joy that you get by making someone else happy and relieving their tensions and worries is of the superior value. It also helps our bodies to secrete happy hormones. They help to release joy from within and fill us up with bliss. Helping others actually helps yourself. Let’s live a life of being helpful and grateful to others, and bring happiness to as many people as we can. This is the real guide to Happiness.