Character of a happy man

Happiness is the at most quality in human life. We endeavor whole life to pursue it. Strange thing is that people sought it in different things. Yet for centuries the standing question in front of mankind is: where is happiness ? Mostly we search for it outside.

Spiritual leaders and philosophers have quested a lot and enlightened the mankind. And the answer is: ultimate happiness resides within us all. It is in our perception, in the way of thinking and living. When we process milk we get butter. Same is the case with happiness. When we look within, change within, process within, we get it. When thoughts are sublimed, feelings and experiences are changed.

If we have all and yet not happy; need to think over it. Ultimate goal of life and all endeavor can be the happiness only. We must process and develop it within. And one who has developed it, how he acts and how he behaves ? It is very interesting and amusing to know the character of a happy man. Here is a small easy poem by Sir Henry Wotton to understand it. We can also transform ourselves and be the same:

How happy is he born or taught,

That serveth not another's will;

Whose armour is his honest thought,

And simple truth his highest skill;

Whose passions not his masters are;

Whose soul is still prepar'd for death

Untied unto the world with care

Of princes' grace or vulgar breath;

Who envies none whom chance doth raise,

Or vice; who never understood

The deepest wounds are given by praise,

By rule of state, but not of good;

Who hath his life from rumours freed;

Whose conscience is his strong retreat;

Whose state can neither flatterers feed,

Nor ruins make accusers great;

Who God doth late and early pray,

More of his grace than goods to send,

And entertains the harmless day

With a well-chosen book or friend.

This man is free from servile bands

Of hope to rise or fear to fall;

Lord of himself, though not of lands;

And having nothing, yet hath all.

By Sir Henry Wotton

A gist of the poem :

We must learn how to be happy. He is happy; who is not a slave of another’s will. His great defence is his honesty. And at most skill is simple truth.  

He is happy; who is master of himself, master of his own passions. Who is not afraid of death. Who is carefree and unworried of king’s grace or vulgar company.

He is happy; who envies none, weather he is being risen or fallen by the destiny. Who is unaffected by the deepest wounds given in praise. May the praise be done by a person in authority but not good.

He is happy; who has freed his mind from rumors. Who can withdraw guidance from his conscience. Whose state of mind can’t be deviated by flatterers or accusers.   

He is happy; who prays God for a grace instead of goods. God may examine us by keeping us on wait. But instead of reacting and complaining he spends his day with a well chosen book or a friend.

A man with such qualities is free from slavishness, caused due to hope to rise or fear to fall. He is master of himself though having no lands. He has nothing yet having all.

*****

Happiness is the burning quest for human existence. A man runs whole life after it but miss to look within. We try to pursue it in worldly possessions; in name, fame and money. It is not exterior but interior. It is not an outside job, it’s an inside job. Instead of searching it somewhere else; let us be awake and sought it in own self.

"A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes."

~ Hugh Downs