A small documentary about Nepal

A wow documentary comparing Nepal and America and the level of happiness between the people. By Sarah miller.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIsA_ACfsFM

What do we want

We go to school, college and then to office. But for what? To earn some money so that we can sustain ourself by food, clothing and shelter. But thats not all that we want. If it had been, we would have stopped working after our basic need was fulfilled. Maslow has given some hierarchy of needs. If one need at lower level is satisfied (physiological, security, belongingness), we thrive for upper level ones (esteem and self actualization). But someone who is self actualized may still be dissatisfied and someone with so called lower level need of belongingness may be very satisfied. 

Satisfaction is concerned with whether one attains what one wants or not. But the question is what do we want? Money, fame, esteem, etc are just the means of what we actually want. Whether after attaining what we want makes us happy or not decides whether we are satisfied or not. 

This proves that what we want is happiness. We are searching for happiness in everything we do, expecting that happiness lies there. After we attain that means, we find that happiness is still not attained and we search for other means. More money, beautiful spouse, promotion, etc.  We experiment with the question 'where is happiness' a few times in our lives and then we die. 

The conclusion is we want happiness in life. 

Second Necessary Criterion for True Love

Having said that the first criterion for true love is that it is not driven by any special quality of the beloved, the second necessary criteria for true love is that there should be no expectation of any sort from the person whom you love.

Expectation is the antithesis of love. If you expect anything from your beloved, then it is what you expect that you love and not the person itself.

There is no guarantee that your beloved one will fulfill all your expectation. They can't fulfill every expectation even though if they want to. Its simply not feasible and possible. Your love may decrease or even cease to exist depending upon the amount of 'love' on your expectation that is not fulfilled.

There is an inverse relationships between the intensity that you expect something and the decrease in love for the person from whom that expectation was denied. This is why I referred expectation as the antithesis of love.

This is another guideline to determine if you are in true love or not. Close your eyes and think what you expect from your love: care, good food, good behavior, security, kids, respect or even love. Will you still love him or her if you don't receive that? If no, then you're not in true love. Its possible that you are attracted or infatuated or...., but not in love. True love is not dependent on anything, at least not on expectations.

How to improve this blog

Please suggest me how I can improve this blog. 

Basic Criteria for True Love

Uncountable fine minds have attempted to define love. One of them is Hindu Saint Narad. He has composed a small booklet of 84 verses and named it 'Narad Bhakti Sutra'. The literal translation turns out to be 'Formula of devotion by Narad'. No accurate date has been confirmed for this masterpiece but it is agreed that it dates back to more than a thousand years.Among his verses, this article will concentrate on the 54th one, where he lists various criteria for true love.

The basic criterion for true love is that it is not directed towards the subject due to any special quality. If the love is due to any quality such as beautiful face, attractive personality, wealth, fame, etc, then love will cease to exist if that quality is sheded by the subject being loved. In fact, This sort of situation can just be called attraction or infatuation if anything more.

The conclusion is that any love that is directed by any special quality cannot be labelled true love. It is said that nothing in this world is permanent but change. It is highly probable that one day, the special quality that attracted someone may change. And if this happens, the so called love will also change. The love was towards beautiful face, attractive personality, wealth, fame, etc in the first place and not towards the person who had that special quality.

This criterion of true love by Narad gives us a guideline to determine whether we really love someone or it is just a false alarm.

why dont we retain happiness

Every living entity aspire for happiness and satisfaction. There is no sorrow seeking entity. Every task of every individual is guided by the quest of happiness. But why are we people so unhappy? Haven't we ever found happiness? Of course we have. But the problem is that we dont retain happiness.

Now comes the million dollar question: Why don't we retain happiness? The answer, according to me is that we have never found happiness. What we thought of as happiness is a mere virtual supposition of happiness. Let me explain this with an example. We believe that acquiring a good job will keeps us happy. All of our effort are then directed towards acquiring a good job. We study for years, work hard for good grades, relentlessly search for job and ultimately find one.(if lucky enough...)

What happened after a year! We are really convinced that this job doesn't gives us happiness. Then what gives happiness: maybe promotion, a better paying job, fine colleagues, etc, etc, etc. A good job, which we thought will make us happy for the rest of our life didn't even managed for a year. Why is this? It is because a good job doesn't give us happiness. There is no question about retaining that happiness. As simple as that.

In order to retain happiness, we need to find happiness in the first place. Is it in wife, is it in money, is it in fame or is it in power. After we have decided that 'this' gives me happy and after finding it, I will be happy for the rest of my life, then we can go, search and find it.
This leads us to back to my basic question? Where can we find happiness. If you have found one, please share with me.

Happiness thru love...

Happiness thru love....

The hindu philosophy emphasizes happiness thru love. But this love is different from boy loving a girl, kid loving his or her mother. It has certain characteristics that is described in the booklet by Saint Narad called 'Narad Bhakti Sutra'. One of the literal translation of this title may be 'formulae of devotion (love) by Narad'. This booklet has altogether 84 formula. I will now try to explain each and every formula as I understand it. I dont understand Sanskrit language in which this booklet is written but I have read different translation and gave a thought to it.

The subject is far more vast for my little mind. I will try to explain it as I see it. Interested ones can discuss the issue with me.

we obtain happiness but dont retain it

One of the problems, that I found with happiness is that we receive happiness many times and in different forms, but we are unable to retain it.

So the achievement which makes us happy cannot keep us happy for a long duration of time. And again, we continue our venture of searching happiness yet in another form.

Bliss, happiness, satisfaction, peace, ....

Everyone is moving. Everything is moving. I am also moving. I am moving when I'm asleep. Most of the organs are working, blood is flowing, digestion is taking place. Can't I stay still. Never. Ever....

But where? for what? until when? I dont know.

What do I want. I want a good job, money, fame, sex, travelling, music, etc etc etc etc etc etc.....

Good job: Good job gives good money, good money buys luxurious goods, luxurious goods give happines

Money: Buy goods you want, be happy

Name, Fame: People will talk about you. It will make you happy


Sex, Travelling, Music: Instant satisfaction and thus happiness

Question: What do we want?
Answer: We want happiness


Really!!!
So how do we get it?

I dont know, please suggest me