My Idea of Happiness

This is a part of our course - and you would not believe which one - CS301: Design and Analysis of Algorithms ! The course is taken by Prof. Ranade and he suddenly thought one day of making us think philosophically ... hence the thoughts which follow.

The assignment as posted by Sir:
Write an essay on "My Idea of Happiness".

What has made you happy in the past? What makes you happy today?
What do you do for fun? What do you expect will make you happy in the
future? What is needed for you to be happy? How much money? What
besides money? These are some of the questions you must answer.

This is what I could manage:

My Idea of Happiness

What do we mean when we say happiness ? Well, to start with, some dictionary meanings of the word "Happiness"

Happiness:
1. the quality or state of being happy.
2. good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.
3: state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy
4: emotions experienced when in a state of well-being

Happiness results from the possession or attainment of what one considers good.
Bliss is unalloyed happiness or supreme delight.
Contentment is a peaceful kind of happiness in which one rests without desires, even though every wish may not have been gratified.

Well, for me, probably 3 above describes 3 most correctly. I feel happiness is all about the state which we are in, mostly mental state. Happiness for me is also closely related to satisfaction - when one is satisfied, one should be happy. On the other hand, if one is not satisfied with some actions of his/her, then most probably he would not be happy after doing those actions.

Human being needs many many things right from the day he is born. In the initial few years of one's life, apart from the very unfortunate ones (this is where probably the "good fortune" meaning comes in) most of these needs are taken care of by someone else, namely our parents. Having got all that we needed, we are satisfied and hence also happy. Thus, in our childhood years, even something as trivial as getting a balloon in our hand makes us very happy. As we grow up, our needs, demands increase and hence it is more difficult to satisfy them. As a result, it becomes increasingly difficult to get happiness. Thus, if at the age of 20, if someone is unhappy, there is a very low probablity that a piece of chocolate would make that person happy, but at the age of 7-8, it would most definitely have worked ! One may say that having less demands or having a mechanism to ensure that all of them are met, is almost a sure path to happiness - both these things unfortunately seem to be hard to exist at all times.

What then makes a person happy at all times ? Happiness is also relative - one person may not get any happiness from something, while another person might be very joyful after getting the same thing. Infact, the same thing may bring joy to one and sadness to another person ! Is that the way the world goes ? Is it that someone has to be sad for someone else to be happy ? Or are the sayings "Happiness shared is happiness doubled, sorrow shared is sorrow halfed" etc. really true ? I would say in an ideal world, these are the things which we would really like to have - but I doubt we can see these things happening around us very commonly. So, then forgetting about what other's happiness is due to and how we affect that - one can just try and think about what makes oneself happy, to start with - then go on to more difficult questions. I would believe that ultimately, if one is "content" with what one has, one would be happy. And contentment is more a state of mind than the actual material existence of things around oneself. A person can be content in very little and be happy, or keep craving for more and never be happy. Does this mean that we set our aims low and be content with whatever we have ? Were all the great inventors and discoverers wrong in spending all the years of their lives not being "content" with what they have - did they all spend a sorrowful life ? Mostly NO ! Maybe it was the knowledge they kept gaining at every step of their life that made them happy. As Einstein has said - "What, then, impels us to devise theory after theory? Why do we devise theories at all? The answer is simply: because we enjoy comprehending, i.e., reducing phenomena by the process of logic to something already known or (apparently) evident." It is probably this basic idea that keeps people going all their lives. For me, what is it that would make me happy today ? Well, I can think of some things - Knowing new things: in academics and otherwise, getting to see the raw beauty of nature - and just stare and admire it, thanking God for the beautiful world and for giving me the ability to appreciate it, being with people whom I love, getting appreciation from someone whom I know cares for me - for that matter just knowing that someone cares for me. Maybe some more things can go into it ... some more material things - but isn't it really ultimately these things that would make any person happy ? I doubt if a person needs anything more than this to be happy ... obviously the inability to do the above leads to sadness !

Does "enjoyment" necessarily lead to happiness - I feel sometimes enjoyment can lead to happiness which is just momentory. Long term happiness may be got from the recollection of those moments though. Infact, that leads to a thought - is it that at any moment when we are feeling sad, somehow if we can think of our happy moments in life, we become happy again ? Maybe yes ... but still, we look for many things that would make us happy - precisely the things which we would list in the "fun-filled" or "enjoyable" activities. These could be something as big as going for a long vacation to just roaming around aimlessly in a garden to hanging out with friends to seeing a movie to reading a nice book to listening to good music. In the extreme cases, I may also include things like solving puzzles and playing around with computers and electronics and robots to be "fun", because I enjoy doing them at times - not always though. These are however things which one does looking at the immediate consequences only - no foresight goes into the decision to do things. As an algorithms guy would put it probably, this is what corresponds to the "greedy" strategy !

Looking into the future and deciding what will make us happy later on is probably the toughest question to answer for any person. I would personally even debate on whether a person can know this in advance. And even if there was some way in which one could get to know about it, should one use it - would it leave our life as interesting as it otherwise would have been ? Isn't the journey to look for the truth also as enjoyable as the final destination would be ? Well, there could be atleast two ways to think of this - one can get to know what is THE path in life which will make him/her happy, and then to make his/her life as happy and fulfilling as possible, he/she takes that path and keeps doing that till the end. Second, to not be very sure of what that path is, and keep wandering on different routes, and look for what each route has to offer - learn to take everything in a positive manner and one can be happy throughout this apparently "rough and unhappy" journey as well. But even after thinking about this and probably realizing that ultimately happiness is just about one's attitude and that one can be happy if one wants to or not be happy at all if one wants to go that way, I can't help but think and put down some things which I would love to have and as of now, feel essential to give me happiness in the future. A good family would be one of the things I feel one can't do without. Then, probably health - both physical and mental and if life is gracious enough, money ! How much of each is an even more difficult question to answer - probably money one can quantify most easily ... the others I find much tougher to quantify. How much money would I need ? Well ... maybe the amount of money which will allow me to get all the basic necessities. More than that, there would be no limit as to how much one would need ! If there is something for which I need money and I don't have, I would fall back on the more valuable resources which I have - my physical and mental health and family - includes friends as well when I say family - to get me a solution, namely earning more money or else working my way around the necessity.

How many materialistic things can really give us happiness ? While it is true that if one has enough money to take care of all such needs, he/she can think of higher things in life, can one without this money not be happy ? Certainly one can. Maybe there is no one thing or a set of things which can lead to happiness in one's life other than his/her mental feelings, attitude and way of looking at anything. Some people can find happiness in virtually anything while some people inspite of having "everything", can't be happy - the above thought probably explains that !