The Secret to Being Happy | Jaya Row | TEDxGatewaySalon

Are you happy?

Yes, you're all looking happy and we all are happy. Sometimes.

What if you ate chocolate with the foil?

You would enjoy the chocolate but periodically have to spit out

the foil, right? Similarly,

our happiness is unnecessarily intercepted by bouts of sorrow.

Wouldn't it be great if we could just be happy without the intervening pain?

So. Where is happiness?

You believe it's out there in the world, right?

But consider this. You take a non-stop flight Mumbai to New York,

and as you exit the terminal building there,

a fellow passenger lights up a cigarette. He is happy.

But a non-smoker walks away.

The same object gives immense pleasure to one person,

intense displeasure to another. So is happiness in the object.

Then where is it?

Think.

As long as the desire for the cigarette was unfulfilled, the mind was agitated,

unhappy.

The moment the desire got fulfilled, the agitation ceased, you're happy.

So is happiness in the mind, and not in the object.

Are we chasing a mirage all our lives, when the oasis is elsewhere ?

By the end of the session,

you will have the power to be happy with or without objects.

Where do we seek happiness?

We look for happiness through four avenues.

Sense enjoyment.

Action.

Relationships.

and Intellectual pursuits.

Let's begin with sense enjoyment.

You eat the first mango of the season,

It's delicious. Right?

But you keep eating mangoes. The enjoyment diminishes.

The more you indulge, the less you enjoy. What's the way out?

Then, action.

Work. What are you working for? Profit ? Paycheck?

Watch the thousands of people go to work on a Monday morning.

Does anyone look excited?