The search for happiness within….

Sometimes life brings us across someone special, who teaches us the most important lesson of our lives; changes us and makes us aware of the true significance of our existence. In my case, that special person was my father.

As a child I had always admired my father. All through my childhood, I had seen him as an efficient and successful administrator, equally loved and respected by the public and the police force; a doting father who would somehow manage to squeeze out time from his busy schedule to read out stories to us, listen to our progress in school and play with us; an avid reader and an eloquent speaker. He was an ambitious man with dreams of carving out a niche for himself in the society. Through his hard work and incessant zeal to help the common man he achieved his vision, and much more.

But then life does not always unfold itself in the manner we want it to. Destiny had some other plans for him, and at the peak of his career, he was afflicted by several life threatening diseases. Life for us suddenly came to a stand-still. I was heart-broken, but it was only then that I learned the most important and tough lesson of life through my father.

Even though the world around him was crumbling down and friends as well as well-wishers suddenly started diminishing, he maintained a dignified stance. The excruciating pain of regular dialyses and accompanied health problems never lowered his zeal for life and he continued to attend to the call of duty till his last breath. I was amazed to see him laughing and cracking jokes, although he knew that he did not have much time in hand. His faith in God and the feeling of gratitude never faltered.

It was through him that I realized that happiness in life is a decision you make, before-hand; a state that you decide to be in whatever the circumstances. Happiness is never because of possessing a beautiful painting or having a big house; it is always because of the way you align things in your mind, the way you prioritize them. It is a decision you take each day in your life; a choice of whether you want to lament over the things that went wrong; panic over the diseases that you might have acquired; whine over the worthless job that you are clinging to; feel miserable because your children are somewhere far away due to their jobs – or be thankful about the many things that went right; of not being among the ones who perish on the streets with no one to attend to; of having a respectable job while many are jobless; of having the joy of raising the children while many are childless.

Good times and bad times are unavoidable parts of one’s life – and these external factors should not be allowed to dictate the internal state of one’s mind, which should always strive for serenity and happiness. Everyone has the power to extract true happiness from within, and the thoughts of past or present good things should be used as an anchor to withstand the storms of bad times.