People want to conquer. They want to rule. They want to prove things to the world. They conquer lands, companies; try to conquer space, people and their hearts and so on. The present age mantras are,” Rise to the challenge! Prove to the world that you are a man of mettle! Go kiss the world! Conquer the whole world. It’s waiting for you. Life is about how much you can take and still carry on.” and so forth. So, basically in this world people are in frenzy. Competition is at its peak. People are fixed on being successful in life. ‘Success’ is the present age holy-grail.
Everyone is dragged into this rat race, so much so that even children are inextricably a part of this from very tender ages. People are pushing very hard. There seems to be nothing called limit these days.Children are trained, at school to prepare hard for the competitive exams. After that, in colleges or universities they are trained to become ‘professionals’. The first 20 years of a child’s life is spent in preparation for the next 20. Ironically, the next 20, after so much hard work, is not a phase of relaxation and enjoying the fruits of hard earned labor. On the contrary, it’s a phase of struggle. One has to tolerate cutting-edge competition and all that goes with it, and rise to the top of the hierarchy which takes another 20 years.So 40 years of life are spent in preparation for the next phase. After so much of hard work, is there finally a reward for the hard work? Again, it’s a big no. People have to work hard to maintain the reputation and stature that they have pain-stakingly made for themselves. Of course, this example is more inclined in the corporate world. But even in the small scale empires, the example holds good. The point is, the whole life is spent for achieving success. Name, fame, wealth, glory, status, education in a reputed place etc are all considered to be the definitions of success and happiness.So in pursuit of happiness is the whole world moving. In this cutting edge competition, no one pauses to think for a second,” Hey! I am doing all this for happiness, but am I happy?”Ironically, people who are in the top-of-the-world in the success chart are the most unhappy. This can be justified by the following evidences. America, as the world knows in the heartthrob, the crux of the modern civilization. It is America that the world is looking at, for directions to move towards. Why? It is because they are supposedly very passionate and successful people. Following them will make every country healthy, wealthy and wise. But an astonishing 70-80% of the Americans seek psychiatric help! In a survey conducted by the London times, Bangladesh was found to be the happiest nation in the world! And they are one of the poorest.But people who seek happiness are as far away from it as they can ever be. They hardly get to spend time at home, children are left by themselves as both parents go for work, meeting round-the-clock, lots of work even during weekends and so on. In a man’s quest for happiness, most of his time is spent for acquiring wealth. This takes his most of his productive life. Which he sadly can’t even enjoy in his dying days. His children take over and cast him aside.
