Meaning Of Life What Do We Need To Be Happy

The search for the meaning of life has proven to be most difficult and contradicting for a long time. Life has a different definitions in the eyes of different people. There is no clear-cut definition for it. For some, life is all about building a family and leading ‘life’ as it is. For some, life is all about accumulating wealth. For others, life is all about engaging in an academic circle. Still, for others, life is all about art. For many life is all about love. For a few, life is all about religious practices. For philosophers like Aristotle life is about happiness: ‘Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.’ Hence life has a different definition for different people.

I seem to frequently question myself, is life a job? When we grow up from a young, we all have responsibilities to fulfill. As a child, I am to study well. As an adult, I am to earn money to support my family. As a parent, I have to take care of my children and make sure they do not learn the wrong values. At any stage in our life, we always have responsibilities to fulfill and work to do. Why are we going through all these stages in life for? Sometimes, I wish I could just abandon all my responsibilities and just quit the long job of life, staying at home and relaxing. However, this will not work. Despite the suffering that we have to go through in our lives, it is the overcoming of our difficulties that bring us happiness. We are not just living our lives for ourselves, but for the sake of others as well.

I think that enjoyment is a form of rewarding ourselves for fulfilling our responsibilities to others. I often find that completing a job that others are relying on me to do provides more satisfaction than enjoying sensual pleasures. I often hear others say how much they feel like not working and just staying at home to relax. However, when they retire, they starter saying how much they feel like doing something meaningful in their lives. True enjoyment can only be found when we fulfill our duties to others as it is equivalent to fulfilling them for ourselves.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve spent the better part of my life chasing after happiness. It always seemed like happiness stayed just a tad bit out of my grasp—somewhere in the future that I could always see, but not quite touch. For instance, when I was a kid, I believed I’d be happy if I got an admission into a good college. In college, I believed that I’d be happy if I got a good job. When I got a job, I believed that I’d be happy if I got a promotion and a raise. And on and on it went.

Compassion, charity, fellow-feeling, sacrifice and unselfishness are the prerequisites of happiness. A self-centered, egoist, unkind and haughty person cannot achieve happiness. Remember Lord Buddha. He was a handsome prince, had an exceedingly beautiful wife and a lovely newborn son. There was no limit to the comfort and luxuries he enjoyed and yet he was unhappy. Therefore, he left his kingdom and all in search of happiness, bliss and salvation. Finally, he got it and wanted to share it with all without any discrimination. He preached that the path of non-violence, compassion, love, service and charity is the path of happiness and bliss. Happiness does not lie in receiving but in giving, he told us. Poverty may cause inconvenience, but it is not always a curse. Many have turned their poverty into an installment of achieving happiness and bliss through their great willpower, determination and feeling for others. Sometimes poverty, adversity and suffering may help you to bring out the best in you. Adjustment to the realities of life, facing things, and odds as they are and righteous resignation to the will of God can surely lead one to happiness.

In my opinion, a happy life means that life which is free from care and worries. This freedom from worries cannot be obtained with a lot of money. It can be obtained by the habit of mind. Many people worry about small things. Many of us worry about the future and the trouble that will come. However, mostly these troubles never come.

To be really happy, a man should lead a truthful and honest life. He should help his fellowmen and love them. A man loved and respected by others is always happy. To be guided by love in all actions is the key to happiness. We should love and fear God. We should love faith in him and pray to him.