Thoughts for the month

When i was a small child my mom always used to say, study hard today so that you will be able to enjoy your life later on. Being a child who believed his
mother's words, i studied well and sailed through easily to reach high school. When i was facing my 1st board's she again said "study hard son, so that you will get respect and will be able enjoy your life later on". Being the 1st board's i was facing i decided to heed to her words and put in full effort. I did quite well for the 1st boards. After reaching the pre college days, she again said study hard for the entrance son, you will be enjoying your life later on.
This time she couldn't fool me.(i fared very badly for entrance..thats another story.. will tell you later ;)) I asked her right away "Amma you have been
telling me the same thing from the day i started attending my kindergarten, till now i haven't found the 'enjoyment in life' you were talking about". She seemed puzzled. But i asked her "Okay consider i study well for the entrance today and get into a good engineering college as you and dad want me to. How will i be able to enjoy coz of that? I will again have to perform hard since i will be studying with the best engineering minds of the land. Consider i do that. What next? " "You wil get a good job with a high salary package", she said. "So, high salary means what good does it do to me?", i asked. "Well you can buy a car, build a house in few years,have a good bank balance, get respect in society ". "So how are these things going to help me.Will it make me happy?" She was getting angry now. "hmmm.. you can marry a beautiful girl from a good family and settle down".I still went on to see what my mother's reaction would be. "So after settling down i will be happy and will be enjoying life is it?" So i do everything to get married to a pretty girl from a good family?? Mom, trust me, i could that even without wasting so much of energy studying hard and working hard for so many years. As per what you said i actually start
'enjoying' my life after i'm 30 or something.
My dad who was hearing this conversation while reading his sunday newspaper interrupted me and said, "No son its not that way, the journey which takes you
there is basically what life is all about. You learn to live from the experiences of your life, from your mistakes, from the people you meet. Your right may be wrong for another person and vice-versa. Your concept of happiness may be different from another person. Its up to you to find out the purpose of your birth. By the time you have a degree in your hand you will realize what to do in life. You would have had the experiences to learn from. Till then listen to us"

We always tend to look for materialistic happiness. I have friend who is crazy about mobile phones. He keeps on changing his phone every 6 months. If you ask him why he does that. He tells "with the latest phone you are upto date with the technology and it makes me feel proud and happy".While working his ass off in office the thought of buying the latest phone or ipod is what drives him from working so hard. Another friend of mine lives on the principle 'The grass is always greener on the other side'. He might have everything, but still he is never satisfied with what he has. If any of his friends buys something new he works hard to get something better than that. So he never finds happiness with what he has.

Have anybody thought what if we find happiness with what we already blessed with. We always try to look for something better overlooking what we already have. Shed your ego, jealousy, hatred and prejudist mind. Smile often, be receptive, help others, be humane, stand for what is right, be brave, be empathatic. The world will be a better place to live if everyone thinks that way.

Life is a lesson to be learnt through experiences. Experiences give better understanding of life. Better understanding of life gives less reasons to worry
about. Less reasons to worry about means more happiness. And the happiness is not something which we have to earn just by working for a period of time. We should learn to be happy while working hard itself.If one is happy with what he is having and enjoying the work he is doing he will never feel sad. Working hard on something what you love will never feel like a hard work for you. So be happy and keep smiling and makes others smile too. :)