Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "life-philosophy"

What is Happiness?

Happiness is a myth. It doesn’t exist.

What we call happiness is merely a temporary sensation of excitement that we receive upon the fulfillment of our expectations.

It’s not happiness, it’s addiction.

And since we have made a society out of this insane pursuit of addiction, our brain is never at a healthy state to actually fathom and more importantly produce true happiness.

And what is true happiness?

Contentment.

You’ve been working for hours. You haven’t had the time to even have some water. Finally you finish your work and drink a glass of water. The sheer feeling of joy that you receive at that moment – that’s happiness, that’s contentment.

You haven’t been near your loved ones for days, for you’ve been away for work. Finally you get home and take them in your arms – that’s happiness, that’s contentment.

Now let me tell you what is not happiness, what is in fact an unhealthy addiction which only ruins a person’s life both mentally and physically.

You’ve been using the same smartphone for over a year now. Suddenly the brand announces the release of a new model. And you get all hyped up to buy that model, despite the fact that you don’t really need it. That’s addiction – that’s an illness.

You visit a new place on vacation. But instead of experiencing that place with your heart, you bring your phone out and waste the entire vacation on taking pictures to post on social media.

That’s addiction, that’s illness. You know why? Because when you get home, you realize, you have plenty of pictures of the vacation on your phone alright, but you have no meaningful memory of that place in your heart.

In usual circumstances, our brain doesn’t distinguish between addiction and true joy. It can only do that, when we stop running and start living. Because at the end of the day, joy is not about fulfilling expectations, joy is about learning to live beyond expectations.

The more you break me, the stronger I become.
The more you hate me, the gentler I become.
The more you mock me, the kinder I become.
The more you alienate me, the braver I become.
The more you betray me, the more I learn to trust.
The more you disappoint me, the more I feel electrified.
The more you take advantage, the more I learn to care.
The more you backstab me, the more I am energized.
The more you humiliate me, the more I gain humility.
The more you laugh at me, the more I learn to smile.
More you kick me around, more my spine is straightened.
The more you drag me down, the higher I end up flying.
Every bad behavior directed at me amplifies my power.
The broken humans of the world make the greatest healer.

Character, I say, is no commodity,
To be traded in for luxury.
Integrity, I say, is no commodity,
To be traded in for security,
Virtues, I say, are no commodity,
To be traded in for applause.
Values, I say, are no commodity,
To be traded in for comfort.
Warmth, I say, is no commodity,
To be traded in for image.
Humility, I say, is no commodity,
To be traded in for respect.
A life without honor, I say,
Is a life totally gone astray.

From error to error, we’ll correct our errors.
From failure to failure, we shall rise high.
From despair to despair, our fears disappear.
From scar to scar, our heart learns to fly.
From one jinx to another, we become destiny.
From darkness to darkness, we become light.
One wound to another, we become the cure.
From one loss to another, we understand life.
Dust bite after dust bite, all dust become ointment.
One lost road after another, we draw a new map.
Teardrops upon teardrops, all tears turn elixir.
One screw-up after another, we learn to grow up.
One heartbreak to another, we become the healer.
Bearing crisis upon crisis, we shall rise as creator.

Best laid plans of mice and men,
Often go awry leaving no hope.
Just when you think you have control,
Life throws you off course.
All notions of order are a myth,
Only order of the universe is chaos.
Expand your sight and you’ll realize,
There is order in every chaos.
A narrow mind is ever struggling,
In the tangled web of order and chaos.
A sapient mind works above the two,
For their sight is fixed on a purpose.
Focus on life, not on all its philosophy.
Embrace the chaos and act despite insecurity.

Every dollar spent on luxury is a dollar of disparity. Citizens of earth could force big tech to pay their employees fair wages tomorrow, if they just stop buying their fancy, overpriced products and go for humbler alternatives unless the companies bring down their disparities in salary.

The CEO may enjoy certain benefits of their position, but not until those working at the bottom can afford the fundamentals of life for their family. I’ll say it to you plainly. An employee wronged is a company wronged.

You see, trying to build a disparity-free economy pursuing revenue is like trying to achieve pregnancy through vasectomy. So long as greed drives the economy, it’s not economy, but catastrophe. So long as greed drives the industries, it’s not industrialization, it is vandalization.

Ambition to climb the ladder of status so that you could be on the affluent side of disparity, is no ambition of a civilized human, it’s the ambition of a caveman. So, before you pursue an ambition in life, educate yourself on a civilized definition of ambition.

Yet the situation in our world is so pathetic that that’s exactly the kind of ambition educational institutes sell. Schools and universities don’t teach you to build a civilized society free from disparity, they teach you clever tactics to be on the affluent side of disparity. This is not education, this is castration.

Concern for the society should be the bedrock of education – collective welfare should be the bedrock of economy – if not, we might as well start living as hobos on the streets, because with greed as the driving principle of education and economy, sooner or later all of us will end up on the streets.

With superior sentience, come superior screw-ups. And this holds particularly true for industrialization. Even if we put aside carbon emission, in the year 2020 alone humankind has produced over 2 billion tonnes of trash, which is expected to rise over 70% by the year 2050.

Thus, in the name of progress we the gadget-mad gargoyles keep acting as the true eco-terrorists of the glorious dumping ground, called the planet earth. 2% of all our waste is e-waste. And the alarming bit here is that, that 2% e-waste comprises over 70% of our overall toxic waste.

So, what can you do, you ask? Simple – reject less, repair more. Try to make things last as long as possible, or pass them on to those who have need for them. Don’t let things go to waste, just because you can afford new ones.

For example, my kid cousin’s laptop has been acting up for some time now. But instead of buying them a new pc, I ordered the replacement for the faulty part and repaired the laptop myself. This way, we not only reduce our e-waste footprint on the planet, but in the process, we teach kids to value things.

The point is, whether you do it yourself or get it done by a professional, by practicing repair, you are actively participating in the making of a greener, cleaner and healthier world.

It’s not enough to be just a consumer, you gotta be a conscious consumer, otherwise there is no difference between a consumer and a slave. That is why, right-to-repair is not only a human rights issue, it is also an environmental issue. Repairing and recycling are the bedrock of sustainability. So I say again – reject less, repair more.

Life is but life’s religion,
Life is but life’s philosophy.
Books may be a part of life’s growth,
But no book is handbook to sensibility.
Take no book as life’s handbook,
Believe no being as life’s authority.
Neither me, nor any other figure,
Can be north star to your senility.
You are but an electric eel,
You don’t need second hand electricity.
Generate your own electric current,
And light up your part of humanity.
It is time to end all lies of authoritarianism,
And take the leap of living faith across divisionism.

When brain stops,
When heart stops,
What is left of you?

When eyes fail,
When memory fails,
What is left of you?

When your last molecule
has merged with nature,
What is left of you?

That’s what you’ve really achieved –
Testament to the fact that,
there ever was a you.

Write till you drop dead,
that’s my motto of writing.
I don’t do promotions,
have never done book signings.

In fact, once I release a work,
I forget and move on to the next.
In an industry driven by book sales,
My principle is, publish and forget.

I never remember how much I have written,
though the vastness is staggering to many.
All I can think of, how much I have to write,
before I drift into the slumber of non-entity.

At birth we become elements to entity,
upon death the entity reverts to elements.
Make sure to make your trip mean something,
more reason to transcend foolish containments.