Art and Science of Happiness-1

As Published By

Anil K Rajvanshi, Ph.D.
Director
Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI)

All of us aspire to have a good life and happiness. There are as many definitions of happiness as there are people. But generally people want a decent place to live, mobility, good education for their children, clean environment, a challenging workplace, good and wholesome entertainment and enough money to meet their usual daily requirements. These are the issues around which the modern industrial societies have evolved and yet they have created the biggest problem of totally unsustainable lifestyles fueled by greed. Thus the climate change, economic meltdown and other consequent social problems are direct result of our greed for resources and energy. Hence the control of greed or better yet the sublimation of greed emotions into higher ones like humility and simplicity can lead to sustainability, happiness and a rewarding life.

Attainment of happiness is the goal of all religions and almost all spiritual writings are about how to achieve it. Most of the religions have focused on renunciation and elimination of desire. Some use this to promise happiness in after life. However one can find happiness in this life and world by curbing or sublimating our greed impulses.

Happiness

A young boy went to a Guru and asked him how he can see God. The Guru immediately saw that the boy was an enlightened soul but too young to be educated in the abstract knowledge of Vedas and Upanishads. He asked the boy whom he loved most. The boy replied “My calf. I play with him all the time. He is my true companion”. The guru asked the boy to think and meditate on the calf. After some months the Guru went to see what his young disciple had achieved and found him crying. “I am losing my mind”, said the disciple “The calf has become so small that it sits on my palm”. The guru advised the disciple to continue meditating on the calf. After some time when the Guru visited the disciple again he was crying and said that now the calf has grown so big that it reaches the sky. Guru knew that the young disciple was on the correct path. He told him to continue further on the same path. Many years passed by before the Guru went to see his disciple. From the disciple’s face the guru knew that he had obtained happiness and had reached his destination. After great difficulty he was able to shake the disciple out of his Samadhi. On being asked how he felt the disciple replied, “Sir, you, I, calf, sky and God are the same!"

Focus on a single thought or a desired object for a long time is the essence of yoga (called Sanyam in Patanjali Yoga) and produces tremendous happiness. A possible mechanism could be that this concentration somehow helps stimulate or "tickle" the pituitary gland and gives us a sense of well being.

Happiness is a state of mind. We feel happy and enjoy life through our senses and the mind. Brain processes the information from the senses and our level of happiness is dictated by its processing power. A powerful processor which produces deep thought can therefore extract more information from the sensory signals and can give us more happiness since the mind gets satisfied easily. A smaller processor obviously needs many more inputs to reach the same enjoyment or satisfaction level. Thus weaker brains need more resources to occupy them and this leads to greed and unsustainable lifestyle. Therefore one of the prerequisites to having a sustainable lifestyle is development of a powerful and smart brain. Such a brain allows us to think deeply or concentrate during which we can get “lost” in processing that information.

A powerful brain or a processor also changes the priorities in life and helps in shifting the focus towards getting personal happiness through mental peace and less on material needs. When concentration on a single thought is carried out regularly and continuously for a long time, it takes our mind away from our insecurities and hence gives us a feeling of calmness and well being.

The insecurity of human beings comes when they do not have anything to do. Thus activities such as hoarding of wealth, material goods etc. are the result of a shallow mind. Mind seeks enjoyment and gets it in activities like binge shopping etc. A mind which is very powerful is capable of finding enjoyment within itself and makes a person self-contented and happy. Thus the act of accumulation or hoarding of anything is a sign of a lower intelligence level since it is driven by fear complex of loosing out or not having enough.

An evolved human being on the other hand will try to hoard as little as possible and will possess only those material things required for his or her use and enjoyment. This is the essence of sustainability. Modern examples of evolved humans are Gandhi and Einstein who lived very simply and yet produced a very high quality of thought since they were very secure human beings.

Powerful Brain

Geneticists tell us that we are born with a certain type of brain and that puts a limit on its processing power. However any type of brain can be nurtured to work efficiently and it is this capability that needs to be imparted to all children. Surely there will always be differences between brains but with proper nurturing during childhood the average capabilities can be raised very high.

When we are young our brain is powerful and pliable. This is primarily because it is relatively free of memories and psychological knots. Besides there are lots of sex hormones flowing through them. These chemicals are necessary and useful for memory enhancement and hence in producing a powerful brain. Thus to increase the brain capacity and have more focused thinking it is necessary that teenagers should be made to focus on various interesting things and less on sex. Too much sexual activity fritters away these chemicals. Probably this was the basis of celibacy propagated by all religions in different civilizations.

Sexual abstinence is a very difficult thing to teach the teenagers. The evolutionary forces cause a tremendous hormonal flow in young people since procreation is the most important part of life. This hormonal flow should be utilized for making the brain powerful and should not be frittered away. Because of our hedonistic society we tend to create more sexual opportunities which sometimes result in overindulgence. This is disruptive and not very productive. Sex is enjoyable and when practiced among consenting adults in moderation is also good for human health.

Therefore it is difficult to curb the powerful sexual tendencies of the young people. Sex desire should not be suppressed but should be sublimated. We can do this by inspiring the youngsters and making them work hard so that they do not have much time to think about sex and related things. An empty mind is a devil’s workshop. This requires that parents and teachers create work environment for children who is challenging, interesting and physically taxing. A “soft” society leads to obesity and sexual disorders.

If we want to shield the children and young adults against the disruptive “too much sex” society then we have to first put a reign on the behavior of the adults. If adults want sex to be depicted openly in mass media then it will automatically be seen by the children. Nevertheless it is very difficult to censor out sexual content since in an open society adults have the freedom to do more or less whatever they want.

Thus the ancient Indian schooling concept of ‘Gurukul’ becomes useful where the children were put in the schools and colleges in isolation and where the focus was on Yoga, learning and sexual abstinence. The practice of Yoga by children will help them to develop the power of concentration which ultimately can produce a powerful brain. Since the brain is pliable during the impressionable age, teaching of Yoga in schools should be made compulsory.

However in the modern world this ancient Indian concept may prove difficult to sell. Also the teachers of such “Gurukuls” have to be much disciplined and highly evolved human beings. Presently teaching profession generally attracts only the lower strata of the society. Still we can aim and plan for modern “Gurukuls” which can be excellent schools with focus on Yoga, moral science and sports, besides the regular subjects. Creation of very intelligent children and young adults who will pass out from such schools is necessary for the betterment of society.

At the same time how do we create the conditions for us to think deeply and produce powerful brain? Today’s society does not put a premium on reading or thinking deeply about something. The pace of life together with information overload from TV, radio and other electronic media is creating a new generation of humans with very short time-span focus. Deep thought requires energy, application and will to achieve it. Short attention span does not require too much effort and hence is easy on the mind. However if we consciously create in our children from very early age the desire to read which will help them cultivate the habit of imagination and daydreaming, then there is a chance of creating a society which is more focused and happy.

Children who have an active imagination daydream a lot. They create imaginary beings though fully conscious of the fact that they are make-believe entities. Sociologists have been baffled as to why children do this. A possible answer is that this is the origin of Sanyam in children. The brain of active children is very powerful and in the absence of any structured thought or focus, starts a movie of imagination. Once this movie is started then there is a continuous flow of thoughts in this direction and the movie gets bigger and bigger till it takes on a life of its own. Children do it because it is a genesis of deep thought and brings happiness to them. This daydreaming can only happen when the child's mind is not bombarded by external inputs, which in present-day electronically driven world is difficult to avoid.

(to be continued….)