What is it that one wants most in life?is it wealth, fame, power, success, children, car, or house? The prime thing that one desires above all is happiness. According to J.P. Vaswani, happiness is not an abstract concept to be dissected and discussed. It is a state of the mind, a condition of life, which is the birthright of every human being.
It is true that one may have every thing the world can give?pleasure, possessions, power?but without peace of mind, he can never be happy. So it was with a holy man who exclaimed:
?Nothing in the morn have I
and nothing do I have at night.
And yet, there is none on earth happier than I.?
Happiness is essentially an inner quality. The following is what Dada Vaswani says, ?Happiness, in itself, does not exist. It is an illusion. Only by being happy with yourself can you find it.?
Aldous Huxley had once remarked, ?Happiness is a by-product of effort.? In other words, it has no existence or value in itself. ?It is not an object, which we can pursue, or possess, or attain as a prize. Rather, it comes as the effort of appropriate actions; it is almost accidental?a bonus which we receive in the act of self-fulfilment through right thought, right attitude and right actions.?
In this book Dada Vaswani reveals 20 secrets that can lead to happiness and in finding each of these, one can feel the excitement of search and discovery. The first secret revealed by Vaswani is that ?if you want to be happy, make others happy first!? This secret is so true that even poet Rabindranath Tagore had said in one of his poems:
?I slept and dreamt that life was happiness.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I served and found that in service, happiness was found.?
?To give is to live?, is Vaswani'smessage. ?Life fulfils itself in service. There is no joy greater than the joy of those who spend themselves in serving those in suffering and pain.?
A very interesting incident is narrated about William Gladstone, the British Prime Minister, who was preparing a speech to deliver in the Parliament the next day. Suddenly he was called by the parents of a sick boy, asking the Prime Minister to visit their son, who was very keen to meet the Prime Minister. Gladstone did not disappoint the boy but later returned to his office to get back to his speech. On returning, Gladstone told his friend, ?This speech may fail or not, the empire may fall or not, but in helping that boy I have tasted exquisite joy!?
The second secret revealed by Vaswani is ?appreciate everyone you meet?. Here Vaswani quotes Dale Carnegie, who wrote books on self-help and said that we should keep the following clipping where we can see it every day:
The last secret is ?if you would be happy, keep on thanking God all the time?. Dada Vaswani concludes by saying that you may forget the first nineteen secrets, but never the ?last one to find happiness?.
(Sterling Paperbacks, A-59 Okhla Industrial Area, Phase II, New Delhi-110 020.)
