God is Happiness; Happiness is God
Have you ever felt that when we are happy, or when we see someone else happy, especially for a little prolonged period of time, the experience seems a little unnatural? Well, allow me to elaborate a little bit more on this.
Ever since we are born, we are thrown into the preconditioning mill of unhappy equals normal, and happy equals something is not right. If you are miserable nobody is worried about it, and it all seems normal, but if you are too happy, your friends, your family, your loved ones, they all start worrying about you. They start thinking that you must have done something wrong.
Whenever a child is happy the parents start looking for the cause: he must have done some mischief or something. Why is he so happy? The parents themselves are not happy, so they develop a sort of subconscious jealousy towards the child because he is happy. They may not be aware of it, but they are in fact experiencing jealousy. It is easy to tolerate somebody else’s misery, but it is almost impossible to tolerate someone’s happiness.
Read this very interesting Story
A deeply religious father was upbringing his son to be a good Christian man. One day when they were going to church he gave the boy two coins: one, a one dollar coin; the other, a penny. He also gave him the choice that whatsoever he thought was right he could put in the donation plate in the church. He could choose the dollar or the penny.
Of course the father believed, and hoped that he would donate the dollar for the church plate. After church he was very curious to know what happened. He asked the boy, “So, what did you do?” The boy admitted that he had donated the penny and kept the dollar for himself.
The father went in a state of shock, and said, “Why? Why did you do this? The boy said, “because the priest in his sermon said, ‘God loveth a cheerful donator.’ I could donate the penny cheerfully, but not the dollar!”
God Loveth the Cheerful Giver
God loveth the cheerful giver. I am absolutely in agreement with the boy, as it is immaterial whether a penny or a dollar, because the real coin that you are sharing is your cheerfulness.
But from the very beginning every child is taught not to be so cheerful. To be cheerful is to be childish, immature, and many a times, not civilized. So you have been brought up not to be cheerful and whatsoever you have ever enjoyed was condemned again and again. If you enjoyed just running and shouting around the house, somebody is bound to be there saying,”Stop that nonsense! I am reading the newspaper!”, as if the newspaper is something very valuable.
Alright kiddo! It’s time to go to bed. But I am not sleepy. Well, it doesn’t matter, the routine says that it’s bedtime. Same thing happens in the morning, when the kid wants to sleep in a little longer; it’s time to wake up. All this is reinforcing the fact that being miserable, and unhappy is normal.
If you ask me, there is only one religion in the world and that religion is to be happy. Everything else is immaterial and irrelevant. If you are happy, you are normal; if you are unhappy, you are not.
Get Rid of Your Hesitations
Get rid of those hesitations and be happy. Forget about all the upbringing you had in your life, as none of that matters when it comes down to being happy. And quit blaming your parents for it, as they themselves have been victims of the upbringing of their own parents. This is nothing but a vicious cycle, and only you can stop it.
Explain to your kids why certain things are not good for them, rather than simply dictating the rules with no explanations. Too much ice-cream or candy is not healthy, so go ahead and explain it to them. It is much better than simply saying, no you can not have ice-cream right now.
God is Happiness; Happiness is God
It is our human nature to be happy. It’s just that being brought up in civilized society we have created too many un-human like behavioral changes in our lives, and this is what makes us unhappy. Consciously work towards getting rid of all the unhappy “crap” out of your mind, your habits, and eventually your nature. And when this is done, you will feel happy, religious and closer to God.
People who cannot enjoy love, life, food, a beautiful view, a sunset, a morning, beautiful clothes, a good bath, a walk on the beach; just simple small things in life, these are the people who eventually end up seeking God. And guess what, God is so far out of their reach!
You see the reality is that God enjoys these trees, otherwise why does He continues on creating them? He is not miserable at all, not a tiny bit. For millenniums He has been creating trees, and flowers, and birds, and all other sorts of life and nature. He goes on replacing and replenishing new beings, new earths, new planets. He is really very colorful! Look at life, observe it closely, and you will see the heart of God, and feel His joy and happiness.
Unhappy People Seek Good
People who are up-tight, unable to enjoy anything, unable to relax, incapable even of enjoying a good night’s sleep; they are the ones who seek God. And they become interested in Him for lame reasons. They think that because life is useless, futile, they have to seek and search God. Their God is against life remember.
I have searched into every religion, into every church, mosque and temple, and I have found that the God of the religious people is against life.” And how can God be against life? If He is against, then there is no reason why life should exist or should be allowed to exist. So if your God is against life, in fact, deep down, you are against the real God. You are following a Godot, not a God.
So, in a nutshell, be natural, be happy, and you will see and feel God happening to you; and let all the unhappy, life haters keep on seeking Him in some imaginary place; church, temple, mosque; wherever.
I have been occasionally visiting Arvind Devalia’s blog, and in one of his posts he talks about 17 Tips to Become Happy Right Now!. Maybe you should go read that post, and grab some more happiness ideas for yourself.
