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More on happiness


Sometime back I made a post titled "Happiness sale and other things". I got a comment from my friend Sumit on this post. It seems there are many people who are questioning their own definition of happiness. In my opinion its our entire generation. Some may come forward and agree to it. Some, choose to ignore, push it under the carpet, come to terms or simply give up.

Happiness as we all would agree is relative. What can make me happy may not make you happy. So what is the difference between you and me that makes us happy by different things. In my humble opinion, the answer is Maslow's hierarchy of needs .

A person will be happy because of an event depending on where he is in the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. A hungry person will be happy if he gets food, a jobless person will be happy to get a secured job. We need to identify our position in the pyramid and strive for what we don't have. The achievement of that will definitely make us happy.

In my opinion what we are trying to do is gather things that we have already achieved from the bottom of pyramid. For example, we have clothing, but we buy more and more of it. The marginal happiness we gain out of buying clothes has gone down substantially. The purchasing power of our generation has gone up substantially. So now, buying anything cannot make us happy any more. We have passed that portion of the pyramid.

Where we are currently, in my opinion, is the top two portions. We need to be acting on Esteem and Self-actualisation. Morality, integrity, confidence, achievement are some of the things we should be looking at. Being an ethical citizen, solving bigger problems for the society/country, striving towards a un-corrupt society are some of the things our generation should take up. This will definitely give us happiness. More than what Happiness Sale upto 50% off can give us.

Comments

Clueso said…
Enjoyed reading this post, especially about the Maslow hierarchy of needs :) keep em coming!!
Anonymous said…
listen bhai Laukik,
happiness and Pleasure are two difference things which are easily misunderstood,
some people call happiness for the small pleasure they get in doing this, say some hooby, like playing some games having sex,
this is short time hapiness---pleasure,
some people find happiness coz they see everything as happy ( i guess mostly satisfied people)
the unsatisfied is always Unhappy...( ???))
also I believe in Buddha's saying
DESIRE IS THE ROOT OF SORROWS
which means that we suffer and feel un-happy if we cant fulfill our desires,
then Buddha said, "we all are born to suffer"
now how do you take this, are we really???...in certain cases yes,
my beliefe is mathametical, that the probility that we all will die is 1 ( i.e 100% sure)
and it might make me sad thinking abt it
what does make me happy then?
my achievments?
more money i earn?
ofcourse iam thinking abt the hierarchy, does that mean if you are at the top of it you are very happiy , and if you are at the bottom of it you are sad because you have desires to acheive all what is at top?
hypothetical situation, no matter where we are , but if you have a greed you can go still higher,,,
i have seen that in India, that everyone has problems at home, but they are happy outside their houses, also experienced it,,,
but if you ask anyone what is your WISH , i bet the answer will be something that will make them happy....
money and sex are two of the biggest temptation in the world, and iam sure 99% of people get happiness/pleasure through both of this,,,
then we come to discuss the MOANER, someone who always moans,
this are the class of people i find here in england,
as they have all the basic facilities, thanks to the UK govt which provides this if you cant earn them,
they moan at the weather
abt the people immigrating from outside
they moan that they have to wait in the queque to get a boob job FREE of cost through NHS ( national health service)
they just moan abt something or the other, that means, that they are not happy....having everything what a aam admi will desire for in India,,( roti , kapda, makan..) i guess its changed now,,,
( more paisa, ladki, gadi, cellphone,,,etc etc)
so i would conclude here...without any comments...full STOP
you always want what you dont have
, if you value what you have then you will also find happiness in what you have....
life is an unplaned mystery.......
kAR BHALA SO HO BHALA >><<<
Anonymous said…
based on some more research , as this topic is very interesting
i believe stress is inversly proportional to happiness
and one of my doctor friend says that happiness is all to do with a persons harmones ( i am not sure is iam using the correct scientific terms)
but i have read and experienced that in women this is a big effect during menopause, which happens in age group of 40+
and during menopause there are harmonal changes which occur , also during pregnancies...
so there are some kind of chemical reaction in the human body which may effect your state of being happy at a given point of time in life,,,,
when i went to cambodia last year , they were selling something called HAPPY PIZZA
now guess what does this have in them,,, marijuana ( yes grass or weed)
so does it really makes you happy after eating this pizza,,, well i guess for some it does...
also in Holland they have something called MAGIC MUSHROOMS, guess what this is ,,,again some form of drugs which makes you happy...like extacy ,,
now this topic is either getting too complicated in my little head,
or am i drifting ffrom a simple subject .....????
Anonymous said…
Stats to add to this post - they are more financially poor people who are happy then financially happy people..

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