Understanding Happiness and Prosperity Correctly

Understanding Happiness and Prosperity Correctly – A critical appraisal of the current scenario with respect to Present-day relationships and Present-day physical facilities.

Happiness and Prosperity in the Current Situation

Happiness may be defined as being in harmony/synergy in the state/situation that I live in. ” A state or situation in which I live, if there is harmony in it then I like to be in that state/situation. The state of liking is happiness. ” Whereas, prosperity is the ” feeling of having or making available more than required physical facilities “.

In the current scenario, we are generally trying to achieve happiness and prosperity by maximizing the accumulation and consumption of physical facilities. This is an attempt to achieve happiness through pleasant sensory interactions. Physical facilities are not seen as a means of fulfilling bodily needs but as a means of maximizing happiness. This has resulted in the wrong assessment of wants for physical facilities as being unlimited.

But this pursuit is self-defeating. Neither can we hope to achieve continuous happiness through sensory interactions nor can we have prosperity, as it amounts to trying to fulfill unlimited wants through limited resources. This effort is engendering problems at all levels. It is becoming anti-ecological and anti-people and threatening human survival itself.

Some of the Consequences of such a Trend are Summarised below:

1. At the level of the individual: Rising problems of depression, psychological disorders, suicides, stress, insecurity, psycho-somatic diseases, loneliness, etc.
2. At the level of the family: Breaking of joint families, mistrust, conflict between older and younger generations, insecurity in relationships, divorce, dowry tortures, family feuds, wasteful expenditure on family functions, etc.
3. At the level of the Society: Growing incidences of terrorism and Naxalism, rising communalism, spreading casteism, racial and ethnic struggle, wars between nations, attempts of genocide, fear of nuclear and genetic warfare, etc.
4. At the level of nature: Global warming, water, air, soil, noise, etc. pollution, resource depletion of minerals and mineral oils, sizeable deforestations, loss of fertility of the soil. It, therefore, calls for an urgent need for human beings to correctly understand happiness and prosperity as well as the sustainable way to achieve these.

Also, read – Understanding and Living in Harmony at various levels

Our Present State / A Critical Appraisal of the Current Scenario

Present Day Relationship

State	Reason
Sometimes more good and fulfilling relationships	Good Understanding
Sometimes less fulfilling relationships lead to unhappiness	Living with wrong assumptions Unable to understand others and their expectations

Present-Day Physical Facilities

State	Reason
Want to feel prosperous but only accumulate wealth	Wrong assumptions of getting more happiness with more wealth
Want to enrich Nature but are exploiting and destroying it.	Adopting bad and eco-destructive practices for our development