There is a famous quote that, ‘Lessons of goodness and repentance are a lot but there are very few who learn anything from these lessons’. Happiness is also a topic of both psychology and philosophy about which lot has been said and written but still it is one of the scarcest things found in the actual world. On one hand, we repeatedly hear and read about cries, anger, loss, grief and other similar things while on the other, we are bombarded by the ways to keep ourselves happy and even then, it is not something that should be easily acquired. My limited knowledge does not permit me to comment on this topic and its underlying philosophy but I have come along some interesting observations about this that I would like to share with the readers.

A few days before, I was invited by a friend of mine to his place. He lives in one of the most famous community towns of the city where a well-facilitated and secure town has been established. Hundreds of well-educated and affluent families reside in this town and are very satisfied of it. The town spreads in a vast area and includes of dozens of residential blocks and hundreds of apartments in these blocks. Some people have bought the apartments while majority of the apartments have been rented by its owner. For some time, we were busy in work of guessing the monthly income of the owner from hundreds of apartments he had rented and trying to compare the level of his authority, satisfaction and happiness. When I was about to ask my friend to conclude this useless estimation of other’s wealth and property that the doorbell rang. My friend went to the door and came back smiling, followed by a man. This fat man was hardly carrying himself and appeared in great distress. My friend said, ‘Such a coincidence! We were talking about the apartments of Haji Sahib and he himself came here. Please Haji Sahib, sit down and have a cup of tea with us’. Haji Sahib got seated and put his four mobile phones on the desk. We greeted each other and started discussing routine things like security situation, weather and others. But it was quite interesting to observe that he attended a number of phone calls in just a minute or more. When he finished talking on one phone, another started ringing and then the other. Then, when he was about to lift his cup of tea, one of the phones rang. He quietly said something to the caller and picked up the phone. He looked both distressed and ashamed of these. In the end, he quickly finished his tea and took leave from us as phone calls were not going to leave him. We at once felt relieved that we were not having all these apartments, otherwise; we could have never resisted such a stress.

Then my friend gave his long commentary on this, ‘I have an uncle of mine and he is also the victim of a similar problem. He has so many businesses and controlling these businesses is not easy. One day, I asked him if these things made him tired and wanted to get rid of these. He said that he was also very tired and wanted to find a solution for it but he was not in position to do so. He used to say, ‘If I don’t control my businesses, people will deceive me and will eat away my businesses. In this way, all my businesses will finish and I will have no option except to beg for my living. So it is like a sticky hell of which you cannot easily get rid of. Once you fall in this well, it is very difficult to come out.’’

Another interesting observation in this regard was shared by another friend of mine. He said, ‘I sometimes visit one of my relatives who remains busy for 15-20 hours every day with business-related issues. One day, when we were sitting together and he was angry on phone at someone about something, I silently came out of his office and went to the backside of the building. There, I heard a loud laughter of some people coming out of a small room. When I entered, I saw three drivers who were free and were busy in laughing about something. I smiled at the comparison that the thing that people think would ensure happiness, makes a person distressed while the absence of the same had freed many of the worries.’

Another person says, ‘I am both angry and irritated of my younger brother. When I remain busy with business issues, he only goes to his job. After he comes back from the job, he wears his track-suit and comes to me smiling and says, ‘I am so happy, don’t be jealous’. This remark really pinches me when he finds me surrounded by unending works and obligations. I just give out a silly smile and see him going to exercise with a smile.’

We had so many similar examples and readers may say that the basic underlying reason behind these are mismanagement, otherwise, if a person can divide his responsibilities or hire assistants for these, he may still live a normal life. I do agree and it is not good to talk against efforts to do business or earn more but it is a strange fact of our society that, the more they earn, the more they seem to be getting short of time for themselves and thus their joyful moments.

But it is one of the biggest blunders that happiness is associated with happy and joyful moments. If these moments are innocent, like playing, listening to music or enjoying the company of friends and family, there is nothing wrong but many people think that those immoral and illegal moments would make us happy that are being prohibited by ethics, our culture and traditions and almost all the religions of the world, then it is very helpless. Famous writer Fethullah Gulen writes, ‘Those who claim of living a happy life and making others happy should understand the virtues first. Virtue is being distinguished with the most exalted ethical and moral values, and beholding the whole of existence with love.’

Belief and understanding in virtues would decide upon the nature of happiness you want to acquire. As mentioned earlier, a happiness that is the product of indulging in vices may make you happy for a limited time but it is a generally accepted reality that those who indulge in vices are the most repenting and unhappy as well. The joy drawn out of a vicious act may be short but it is certain that its loss and feeling of loss or repentance lasts for long, depriving the person of any kind of happiness in this long period. It is the reason why, all the religions emphasize on virtues and consider them elements to generate happiness. Its practical example is the virtue of making others happy. Now, this often-repeated theory come to some as a mere claim but those who have learnt to draw happiness by making others happy realize how much sweet and long-lasting this type of happiness is and those who don’t believe in it, should at least take a try.

We can conclude that without virtues, there is not present any kind of true and stable happiness and once a person gets fully saturated in virtues, he would always be floating in the sweet river of true joys and happiness.