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What is happiness? Is it having the job or business you like - that incidentally also pays or earns you enough for you to like it, having the most wonderful and loving wife, adorable kids, enviable home and hot set or sets of wheels, all bills paid and savings in the bank? Or is it being at peace with oneself?
One can argue that it is possible to be rich and successful and be at peace with oneself. The joke doing the rounds in social media goes like - money cannot buy happiness, but it better to cry in a mansion. If one achieves both material success and mental peace, there is nothing better than that.
But experience has shown that material success has no upper limit. By force of human nature, one looks up the ladder and is envious of those up there ahead of one. One does not look down the ladder to see how better off one is from those below. It is good to be ambitious to try to achieve the next rung of success, but the rat race leaves no time for being at peace with oneself.
Life becomes stressful as the nudge to perform is overbearing. The performance has to be better than x number of people who are also striving to achieve what one is after, or even more. At such times, and especially if one fails to achieve one's goals, it is quite possible for one to breakdown. A creeping sense of self-doubt enters the mind - am I not good enough? If you tried and failed it is no big deal. Remember for each success there are hundred failures. It is shameful not to try, but not so to fail after trying. You can try again.
When one breaks down, a whole lot of things are possible - alcohol or drug abuse, depression, self-destruction, violence or even mental unbalance can take over.
It is at such times that the need for being at peace with oneself manifests itself. No psychologist can help you if you do not help yourself by first promising yourself that you will not let things come to such a pass.
India has a host of Baba's and Guru's who cater to the constituency of people wanting to be at peace with themselves. Ancient Indian scriptures are full of ways and means for one to achieve this. In fact, scriptures of all religions show the way. If one is vigilant enough, one does not even need such help. Being at peace with one's inner self involves one simple mantra - doing something that brings one unbridled joy or satisfaction, with or without monetary considerations.
It is not necessary to go to a church or a temple. It is not even necessary to donate large sums of money. Gurudwaras of the Sikh religion all over the world have langars or kitchens open to any and every one. One can just go there and physically help by feeding the people who came there. It gives a lot of mental peace to be of help. Volunteers from all over the world come to Kolkata to help the poor and disabled by working with The Missionaries of Charity, the organization set up by Mother Teresa. They all come in search of peace.
The CEO of a giant corporation can achieve mental peace by taking time out and playing the guitar with a band he helps set up. It was always his ambition to play guitar on stage. A doctor can achieve the same by treating poor patients free by taking time out from his busy practice. The drift of the argument is that if something creates a load on your conscience; just do the reverse to lessen it. Do not keep wishes hidden because you think people will make fun of you.
Achieve mental peace whichever way you want, but do it before the rat race consumes you. It is not necessary to leave your successful life to do this. I will illustrate this point with a story from Hindu mythology. Narad Muni once asked God who was his greatest disciple, certainly expecting God to name the Muni himself. But God asked him to come down to Earth with him. There, God took him to a vast and barren field. A single farmer was tilling the field with his bullocks and singing melodies in praise of God. He, and people like him are my greatest disciples, God said, because they remember me all day without leaving or shirking their jobs, duties and families.
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