At the heart of what we do is to be happy. Our deepest desire after survival is to find happiness. We often think of becoming happy and finding joy. Even though they are just words, our inner conversation drives us to look out there to be happy in here.

Of course, the world has much for us to experience and take pleasure from, and we must make the most of our time and experiences. However, true happiness is strange in its behavior – we get it when we give it. And this truth becomes our truth when we take a step back and reflect on why that happens.

Thinking about what someone else needs and will cherish, unleashes our empathy and care. We soon find ourselves operating from a deeper space of wanting to genuinely do something for the other. The beauty is that we identify so much with the well-being of someone else that we drop our ego-centric desires. Empathy dissolves ego, and a dissolved ego allows for the discovery of inner joy.

When we find joy in the joy of others, for that period, we may not realsie it, but we operate from a sense of oneness. We completely drop comparisons and expectations. There is a purity of relationship in identifying with the true joy of someone else as if it is our own. In that, we suddenly discover that the expansiveness we are feeling is our own happiness we are discovering within.

Of course, we must be aware that we are not doing things for someone just to look good or gain the approval of others. Nor should a giver’s ego set in where we subtly feel superior just because we gave.

The journey of life is the discovery of truth and happiness. If we have decided to find the answer for ourselves, we need to find someone whose heart we can truly touch and whose life we can truly brighten. When their love and joy resonate with us, we would have truly understood that when we give someone happiness, we ourselves find it.

(Picture – Udaipur)