However, "desire" cannot escape the universal law of "things have both a good as well as bad side". And yes, it is the degree of desire that actually differentiates it from good and bad. It is the degree and motive of desire that has caused classifications like "motivation", "inspiration", "ambition", "greed", "lust", "mania". Though there is a wide chasm of good and bad that separates the first three from the last three, it should be noted that both there is a very thin line separating the two. And its very easy to get carried away and get mixed up between them. At times what we feel is just an innocuous desire for something often overpowers us and turns into a "mania". To be very frank, we just don't know where to draw the line. It is true that we achieve things only when our "desires" materialize through our physical or mental efforts, but there is no limit that we set in our minds. All of us are prone to "test the waters" to see how much more we can get out of a situation, even though we are fully aware that we've already got more than how much we wanted to get in the first place. And the previous desire is replaced by a new desire to get something that was never on our mind in the first place.
Take the example of somebody who walks to office everyday. He envies people who have enough allowance to travel by bus or other public conveyance. Now look at the guy sitting in the bus. Every morning as taxis and ricks pass by wonders how good it would be to be able to afford a personal "taxi" on hire. Now, shift to the guy in the taxi. He looks out of his window and fancies something as trite as a Maruti, arguing that even though its a cheap and small vehicle, it atleast is his own. And the guy in the Maruti just drools at a Merc that passes by. Whereas the guy in the Merc has his eyes set on a private chopper maybe. So, its a never ending cycle of wants that are present in almost every thing associated with our lives. And its good to some extent as it is a benchmark to analyze our progress. I mean it would be stupid if three generations of people in a family pass by just by being happy to manage with the least possible.
But what i want to point out is that, "People associate their happiness with these material things". This is by far, the most ridiculous thing that a human mind has perceived( that of course beside Himesh brand of music and acting, not to mention re-electing Bush for a second time to ruin whatever was left of the American economy...jokes apart..) It is crazy to condition our happiness on the occurrence of events like "a promotion" or "a better lifestyle" and then we spend a miserable life working hard just to get there at the summit of our dreams, only to discover that it isn't as comfy-cushy as we expected it to be. There's no "holding hands and singing about and dancing about happily" that we expect to happen...(lol). And in the bargain to reach there, we've already spent a rather miserable lifetime. Its very similar to suicide bombers, who are in such a rush to die and be rewarded with 72 or so virgins. It'd be funny if, after they die, they get a 72 year old virgin. For all you know, it can be a big mis-interpretation. For all you know, the 72 virgins maybe "guys". What you going to do then?( Lol.... any suicide bombers or Al-Qaeda reading this, m sorry guys, but "Screw you!!!What has to be said, just has to be said"...) My point being we don't realise that we don't need to be a billionaire, or the most popular person in the world or stinking rich to be happy. We can be happy with what we have. Happiness is just a "perception" and of course, the "remote control" is totally in our hands. That is the entire secret of creation and here i am just giving out this gyaan for free. We all are the masters of our own bodies- be it our physical or our spiritual, mental or emotional being.
The problem is "We are too used to being sad to such an extent that we feel "guilty" being happy". We feel so awkward being happy, that we soon give it up and pretend that "life sucks" and show up with a miserable face. Yeah, its true, all of us have rough days, sometimes months, but it is no excuse to mope about and look for sympathy. Though this write up looks like its been inspired by a Simpson episode(where it starts with one thing and ends up with a totally different thing.....) nt that i mind being a Simpsons writer...hehehe, but the point is, we got to take a leaf out of the book of the "yellow fat guy haunting our TV screens for over 20 years now", and that is "No matter whatever happens in life, be shameless enough to get up in the morning and pretend nothing has happened and move on with life." I mean life is too short to mope about. By the time it takes us to cry and wipe our tears in our hankies, countries will have already bombed other countries for their oil, hundreds filmstars will have died of drug overdose, Himesh will have already released another 1000 romantic songs, hundreds of people might already listened to those songs and committed suicide and Tiger woods would have scored another perfect hole in one, if you get my drift. My point being, we just can't miss these absolutely amusing things that happen all around us just cos we are teary-eyed.. Switch on the Telly- there are so many things happening to get ur mind off. Watch politicians tearing each other to bits. Go for an adventure- get injected with swine flu. Drink hooch and get hospitalized. Bet all your life savings on Satyam stocks just for fun. Get killed in Nascar racing. There's so much to do in life. We seriously are a bunch of funny people living in an even funnier world.....
