For long I was thinking of writing about happiness and finally pinned down the title of the piece. Immediately, I Googled it. To my surprise, I found an exact quote by Romain Rolland, “Happiness is to know your limits and be happy with them.” I didn’t know this French novelist at all. He got a Nobel Prize for literature in 1915. I’ve never read any of his works.
I’m happy to know he was very much influenced by the works of Swami Vivekananda, Tagore and Gandhi, my favorite trio. Rolland wrote the biography of Swami Vivekananda, a Vedanta philosopher, Indian spiritual leader and a meditation Guru.
Vivekananda became famous after giving a lecture in Chicago convention of different religious faiths in 1893. Rolland also met both Tagore and Gandhi. In fact, Rolland liked and believed Indian philosophy. I don’t know if these great men were happy in their lives. However, as a teacher and whatever else I am doing, I try to be aware of my limits and I always try to be happy.
How about having a big dream? Great men always talk about a big dream. But I say dream according to your ability. You should know your ability, strength or limits. I remember while selecting my Ph.D. project at the end of the 70s at a Canadian university, I got excited listening to my professor lecture on a renewable fuel project of converting trees to gasoline. Giddy up! I was so excited I thought a Nobel Prize in chemistry is within my reach. At the end, I had my Ph.D. with couple of publications.
With my Ph.D. in my hand, I understood this research would not provide me an enjoyable career. I thought I should not go for an entirely research-oriented job. I wanted a stress-free job. Once in Bangladesh, I was made chair of a pharmacy department. The job came with politics, both with recruitments and promotions, and, always, money matters. I realized I couldn’t climb the administrative ladder in this highly stressful job so I quit.
During my graduate studies, I used to lecture on science to school children and taught chemistry to 12th graders. The students enjoyed my class, and I felt a love for teaching. So ultimately I have settled myself in teaching. I didn’t care about salary. I always tell my students you don’t need to be great in chemistry unless you are chemistry major. You may not use chemistry in your career, but as you are taking chemistry, you have to survive and get a passing grade, or whatever your major spelled out for you.
One can be creative and find personal reward in any job. You don’t need to be a physician, engineer or lawyer. You can build up your career any way you want, but try to be the best in that career.
Apart from individual happiness, if you look at a country’s happiness, there is one country in the world that measures “Gross National Happiness” instead of GDP. According to Business week, Bhutan is considered the happiest in all of Asia. It’s a tiny landlocked country between India, Tibet, China and Nepal. A perfect place for living in harmony with nature.
Happiness has its own classification. Happiness as a newborn is not same as that of a child, teenager or senior. In every stage of your life, you need to be happy. However, that may not be true for everyone. Maybe you were not born with silver spoon. It doesn’t matter. Money doesn’t guarantee happiness.
It may happen you were not happy as a young adult, but you can be happy while you are middle-aged person or old. Life is subtle. You have to get along with your life. I want to conclude this piece with another quotation from Romain Rolland, “When selfish happiness is the only goal in life, life soon becomes goalless.”
Be happy and give happiness to others.
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