THE REAL PRICE OF HAPPINESS

Mankind’s life remains an unending quest for happiness. It is the purpose of life and all human actions are guided towards goals that are supposed to give happiness when achieved. Naturally, human being’s obsession with happiness is understandable. It is this obsession that makes humans find out the ways and means to achieve happiness. Sometimes, they are so concerned that they carry out researches to find out what are the determinants of happiness. The latest in this line is a recent research carried out at Purdue University of the US where researchers carried out a study of some one million people across 164 countries to find out what gives people happiness. They, in fact, tried to measure happiness in monetary terms and came to a baseline figure at $95,000 for life evaluation and $60,000 to $75,000 for emotional well-being. So in terms of Indian Rupee, it certainly is a mind-boggling figure. But the research published in Nature Human Behaviour leaves more questions to be answered than those it answers. The question that is foremost is what is happiness? And is it possible to measure it and lay down a benchmark in monetary terms so that anyone having that specified amount can achieve happiness? Well, both these questions are not easy to answer. Particularly, because happiness is a relative and dynamic concept that cannot be expected to be stable. Thus, there cannot be people who will be found to be happy for all times to come. Happiness and sadness are rather complementary, that is, happiness is experienced only when you compare it with sadness. Having a certain amount of money cannot be the magic wand for happiness.

The researchers themselves state that the amount of money they think is minimum for happiness varies with class and region. So, it is not how much money you have, but how much that money can buy that gives happiness. But there is a catch. What people may want to buy will depend on socio-cultural and psychological factors. And sometimes you can buy something, you do buy something, yet you are not happy. Therefore, it is important to understand that this whole happiness business is not actually happiness business. Happiness is a different construct altogether. It is a felt state. Parents feel happy when their infant child kicks and giggles. Husbands feel happy when they can make their wives smile. Young men are happy when India beats Pakistan in cricket. The list is unending. And in each of those cases, the subject feels happy not because of anything he does or buys. He is happy just because he feels happy. The construct, happiness, is a state of mind — ephemeral and difficult to define. It is a unique combination of the head and the heart, an individual attribute. More importantly, it is not something that can be purchased for a price. Happiness is priceless and there cannot be a materialistic way to define it. Happiness is best understood in spiritual terms as ananda or bliss.

It is that feeling which is difficult to describe. But, yes, it gives you a sense of feel-good. And the best part is that you just need to be happy. Don’t wait for your income level to reach a certain stage.

Even the poor are happy. And even the rich are miserable. Let happiness be an unconditioned response.  It is a kind of enlightenment, linking it with pleasure is getting it all wrong.