There is a key difference between West and East. The difference is in "Defining" What is the "objective" of life. Eastern philosophies like "Indian philosophy" advocates, "Happiness" in life as the objective. Western philosophies advocate "Success". But why is this important? This objective is important, as it defines ones life and it is all the more important to understand why it does so.
Many people are confused on this subject and they keep looking for "this objective in life" every now and then. "Objective" defines the "Target". "Target" defines the "Direction". "Direction" sets the way you "sail through in life". That sail or "Path" defines everything else in your life. Since people do not understand the larger picture, they will be clue less now and then. They start looking out to get some short term "goals", like education degree, job, marriage, retirement benefit, house, car etc...etc. When they get these targets in life, they start working for these "targets like slaves". Once the target is reached, they are clue less again and start the exercise from beginning for the "next target".
If you ask anyone, "Are you Happy"? the common answer will be, "ya I am" with a strange look on their faces (some of them never understood what is happiness and obviously they never understood the question). If you dig more, they will say, they are "getting" what "they want" and hence, 'obviously', they are "Happy". This is because of the "poor education" and the "conditioning of our mind" by "vested business interests". Getting what you want does not make you happy. In-fact it does the exact reverse. It actually makes you move up the ladder and seek the next "thing" in life. You seek the next bigger model of car/phone or next bigger house, because, you are not satisfied with what you got in the first place. Just think, If you are "not going to be satisfied" with what you are getting after a short period of time, then why waste effort, money & time (that are so scarce) on them instead of something that is going to give satisfaction for a long long time? Unfortunately, One will get this question at retirement age and they will be asked to seek religious discourse as a solution. If this question pop in the schooling time, then their entire life will be more efficient and economical, as they will be spending their scarce resource on the right objective in life.
Keeping customer in an eternal "unsatisfied condition" is central to "demand generation" in capitalistic philosophy. So, all advertisements aim to mock your "current condition" (so you start seeking ways to upgrade) or define "what you should be geting next" to be successful in life. Note, once you move up, there are many things lined up to define, what you should be getting next. This list of "next" things, keeps you in 'eternal unsatisfied condition', while your mind naturally wants to go to 'eternal satisfied condition'. The difference in these 2 states causes all problems in life. The problem is, we have allowed external actors to define the 'objective' in our life. We should stop this phenomenon by proper 'education'. We should be mature enough to define, our own objective and be able to set direction in our life. Once we do this, we are in control and we will be moving in the right direction.
The western world try to impose a view that, meeting these small goals is "stepping stone" in life and "to be successful" is the objective in life. But question is why do you want to be successful? Many animals do not work for small objectives to move in evolution chain? Then why do they exist? That is where the supremacy of eastern philosophy comes in to play. From vedic times, it is made clear that, objective in life is simply "to be happy". In-fact, to be "more and more Happy". In-fact that "More and more happy is also not sufficient", and hence one should target to become "Happy for ever". "Happy for ever" is the "Moksha" / "Chidananda".
To be "successful" is one way to become "Happy". Note, not all successful people are happy. Then, when will success brings happiness? Success brings happiness, when you are able to "accumulate" something with you. This "accumulation" that is excess or abundance, brings "Happiness" for you. The "Success" that the western philosophies advocate is to "accumulate" wealth or in very narrow meaning "money". The abundance of "money" makes you happy. Many a times, people are seen successful, but they have not accumulated any thing (in fact the cost of success may be more than the benefits). So, not all success "brings happiness".
So, when you dig western philosophies, you will find out that, to get this "Happiness" you should be "successful". This inherent explanation already proves that, "success" is not the end goal, but "Happiness" is the end goal. Thus proving the supremacy of the eastern philosophies. But why should "Abundance" gives you happiness? Abundance gives happiness because, you can "give that excess". So in reality, it is not the act of accumulation or the state of abundance, but the "act of giving", gives you happiness. Off-course, to give, you should have that abundance in the first place. Without this abundance, you have "fear". The "Fear to be poor" and not able to match the demand in our life. So, you accumulate.
Now, you must have understood, "Happiness" is the 'real' goal. But how do we measure happiness? How do we know, we are happy in first place? It is an already established fact that, if we can't measure, we will not be able to achieve it. The answer is simple. When you are happy, you start giving. You can only distribute joy and not sadness. The people in sadness, look for someone to share their burden. So, if you see people seeking for resources (or garbing resources), you will recognise the "sad people". When you see people giving out, you know they are "Happy". So the question, how to identify 'happiness' is answered. Now the question on "How much". The answer of "How much" of happiness can be directly liked to, "How much one can give". One can give more, if at all, he has more. The measure of richness is not "How much you have", but "How much you can give". So, the formula is to "Have more" and to "Give more". Similarly, how much one seeks/try to grab will define "How much Sad" he is. We see lot of "sad people" all around us today.
But why does the "Abundance" gives happiness? Abundance gives happiness, as it indicates, it has "Satisfied your need". The sense of satisfaction gives you a feeling of "Bliss", "security" and "confidence". This state of mind, having a sense of "security", "confidence" and "bliss" is nothing but "Happiness". Note, "Act of giving" means, giving without expecting and/or taking anything in return. If you expect or take any material benefit in return, it becomes trading and constitute a business. If you do not expect and/or take anything, then you get 'Happiness" in its place. So, Happiness is the "Return benefit" for you.
The 'Core point' to understand here is,
- "Giving" gives Happiness.
- "giving more" gives "more happiness".
"What you have" is not limited to "Money" alone. One can give lot of things apart from 'money'. For ex, one can give, 'love', 'affection', 'sense of security', 'food', 'time', "manual labor", 'loyalty', 'Talent', 'skill', 'knowledge' etc..So one need not work alone to accumulate money. One can also work to accumulate all these valuables. This is the reason, many 'artists' will be happy, although they may be "poor in monetary terms". Always work to accumulate one of these items. If you have "more" than, what you need, in any of these resources, it makes you a "rich person". Working to accumulate one of these in a targeted way, makes you rich in that "item" (and in an efficient way).
Once you are clear about this, lot of confusions in life will go away. You will have meaning in your life and work. As your objective is clear, changes in life, like loss of job or loss in business or loss of an individual or a dear one doesn't affect you much. Work to accumulate something, during your workable age, so that you can give your abundance when the need arises.
You check on any school or syllabus of education. They claim, the main object of education is
- to prepare a student physically and mentally to the future challenges in life
- or to define ones personality
- or to prepare a valuable citizen or human being etc..
In reality, children are "happy" by birth. Life forces, will "interrupt this happiness" naturally. Objective of education is to prepare a child to realize, the ultimate objective in life is nothing but, "to be happy as much as possible and to be happy as long as possible". The education should impart, what is happiness, how to get it, how to sustain it and how to cherish it. Then there will be meaning to education. You must have heard the term "Learning through Play". The concept comes because, maximum learning happens, when the mind is in "happy state". "Happiness" is the central theme of education. In todays scenario, when education has become money making business, Educators, policy makers, teachers, parents and students all are in dark. As objective of education has moved away from "happiness" to "money making", vested interests have kept everyone in dark and are simply confusing everyone with "various concepts", so that people, who are customers, do not question the outcome but simply pay for it.
Parents, please wake up. Do not stress your child. If S/he is not happy, it means, S/he is not going to learn anything. S/he will be confused and direction less through out his life. Work with your child to find out, what makes the child happy. Try to pursue options in that direction. Impart the awareness that. "To be happy" in the end is more important. They know naturally, what to do. Let the child accumulate, using his/her strength, that he can willingly give. 'Money' is not the only thing to accumulate in life.
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