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Writer's pictureAparna Saligrama

Happiness is a state of mind


The great Greek philosopher Plato (427-327 BCE) maintained that happiness is the highest aim of moral thought and conduct because there is nothing after that! When we do something, we can go on asking, but why? When the answer is 'because it makes me happy', there's really nothing to question beyond is there?


[Image courtesy Britannica Encyclopedia; Plato, marble portrait bust, from an original of the 4th century BCE; in the Capitoline Museums, Rome.]


We are witnessing devastation and tragedy of unprecedented proportions due to the corona virus pandemic. All of us are taking precautions. Many of us are in areas where the current situation is moderate but the threat of a spike or cluster of cases occurring overnight

Many of you are living in areas where the threat is very very real. So in such a situation, Plato's words on happiness has greater significance. It may look trivial and upsetting to be talking of happiness in such times, but we are all a product of our times and we have to find ways of coping don't we?

Happiness does not mean laughing and going ha-ha. That's good too, but the happiness I refer to is more about seeking a greater sense of peace within us. We're all doing small things to make our everyday lives better, even as we brave our reality with jobs and paychecks and caring for our older generation and our future generation. QVW member @kellykee.chow turned her living room into an F1 track (see her post in the Social Distancing category on the Forum). My son and I play a boxing game on Nintendo, I lose every time (the game is stupid, obviously!!) and my mother has started to practice her music again....


I am sure you all have started to do something in this down time and I'd love to know what each of you are doing, please use the comments section below. But I wonder how many of these things will stay with us once things return to normal- will we pack up our new hobbies (or old hobbies which we revisited), and get on with our lives? Or will we have imbibed the new things into our everyday life so that it stays on in some form? Maybe not a full blown F1 track but a different version of it? Maybe I'll get so good at the boxing game that I'll take up proper kickboxing? Will those of you who took to learning to cook, paint stick to it?


I hope we all do. Mainly because it makes us happy. Maybe we started it as a means to kill time, to stay sane and connect with our family. But it makes us happy in the process. As much as we will all be thrilled to be allowed to move around, get back to our jobs and our routines, I hope we remember how happy these things make us and find ways to include that in our everyday lives, so that we have something to look forward to, and not allow life to become humdrum again!

As Plato said, there really is nothing above happiness!!



[Please do tell us what you've been doing during this #stayhome #stayathome situation, so everyone can benefit, get ideas & feel less isolated...share images]




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design_rules!
design_rules!
29 jun 2020

Love the blog! and love @arakalic's story as well! Reminds me of another: IN a village people are tired of worrying about this and that. The village leader says, 'ok fine, we will appoint an official 'worrier', we will tell him our worries and he will worry on our behalf'. So they search through the village and find a cobbler at the edge of town. The leader says to the cobbler, 'look you need to worry on your behalf, we will pay you 10 gold coins a week'. The cobbler says no. The leader is shocked. He says, 'this is such a generous offer, you can live in splendour, why would you refuse?'. 'Because', replies the cobbler calmly, 'then I…

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arakalic
arakalic
23 jun 2020

“Happiness is a state of mind” by @Aparna Saligrama is hundred percent true according to me. Neither richness nor poverty or status or position or fame can ensure happiness. If a person wants to be happy may be these things may help or may not also. We have seen as @ vibgyor has commented the less endowed being much happier.

However this topic brought to my memory a small story I had read long back. In a village, inhabited mostly by people of average means and resources.One fine day out of the blue they hear a divine announcement “ whatever any of you wish for, write it down in a slip of paper and keep it under the peepul tree…

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vibgyor71
16 jun 2020

Happiness is a state of mind. Fully agree. I have seen people who we think and know are not or less endowed are quite happy as we see their way of life. They may not have riches, beauty, wealth, status ,position etc etc the parameters of present day happiness.So many times I have wondered and sincerely felt life may be happier if one is less of everything ...be it ambition, acquisition, achievements, expectations .

But then as@aparna saligrama says in her blog, it is a state of mind within ourselves. If we decide to be happy we can be happy. Sounds easy but not easy to get that mindset.

So many other things like fear , inferiority complex attitude are…

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Aparna Saligrama
Aparna Saligrama
28 abr 2020

I would love to see the completed painting of the deer / stag...this is a very complicated form of art! I have seen Madhubani paintings of course, but never thought in terms of how hard it must be to paint it! It was always 'some painter' or 'some artist'! Now seeing @vidyaveeresh work on it, esp. the work in progress piece, it puts things in a new perspective! There is something about a personal approach that lends new meaning to things!


This really is why I started QV Woman... seeing things being said and done by 'real' people, people we know or people on the same network makes things more relatable. Now I am definitely more curious about this form…


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vidya veeresh
vidya veeresh
28 abr 2020

"Happiness is a state of mind" for me, Painting/ sketching brings me into that state of mind. I found time during this lockdown learn a few classic forms of Indian painting....Madhubani, Kalamkari and Gond style of painting....i absolutely enjoyed and transported me in to the bliss of happiness. Shared a few pictures of the same....(the last one is half done)




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