The source of Happiness

'Belief' and 'faith' are often misused while describing our alliance with the supernatural. We 'believe' in something when its existence is corroborated scientifically or punctuated with facts and figures. 'Faith' germinates in our hearts as children when we are made to accept His supremacy by our elders. It's foundation stands on experiences - sans scientific facts and figures.

As a child, I used to ask the reason for my existence on this planet. I was given various answers. I filtered the responses on the basis of my perception and a careful analysis revealed that my purpose of existence was to fill my life and that of others around me with happiness and prosperity. 'To make others happy, I need to be perpetually cheerful', I pondered! My next step as a child was to discover the mantra of perpetual happiness. I was advised to cultivate happiness within myself. But how could I do that?

My grandfather advised me to surrender myself to God and have faith in him. 'You'll be always happy', he added. At that time, the notion of 'faith' for me was remote and esoteric. 'I do not believe in God', I retorted. With a cheerful grin he began to explain. ''Faith' is the stepping stone towards 'belief'', he said. 'You have a strong belief that your mother is a very good cook and always does justice to your appetite. But what was it that made you believe so? You have been tasting the food cooked by her since childhood, your faith in her culinary skills graduated into belief. Similarly the more you have faith in whatever is written in religious books, the more you will start believing in the very existence of God. But for believing in whatever is written you'll have to practice the same. The more your emulate the writings into your real life, the more closer you will be to God and the more you will believe in his artistic creations. The closer to God you are, the happier and more satisfied you will be.'

I was now able to weave the broken links into a complete chain - faith in God's creations leads to belief in the same; belief leads to motivation for union with the One; and the continuous process of seeking the truth within oneself leads a human being to fight against his worst enemies like lust, anger and greed. If he succeeds in vanquishing his enemies, he has prospered to achieve his life's goal of uniting with Him and attaining perpetual happiness.