Ashutosh Mishra - Happiness Is All We Want

Happiness Is All We Want!

Happiness Is All
We Want!

Ashutosh Mishra

BLOOMSBURY INDIA
Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt. Ltd
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First published in India 2017
This edition published 2018

Copyright Ashutosh Mishra, 2018
Illustrations Ashutosh Mishra, 2018

Ashutosh Mishra has asserted his right under the Indian Copyright Act
to be identified as Author of this work

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E-ISBN: 978 93 86250 094

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

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Dedicated to

Aruna & Lal Mohan You created and shaped me!
Manisha You made me blossom!
Aryaa & Chaitanya You gave me fragrance!

Contents

PART 1 Mental Wellbeing
The Mind or the Monkey?

PART 2 Physical Wellbeing
The Body or the Donkey?

PART 3 Spiritual Wellbeing
The Flying Horse!

When I started this piece of writing, I did not know that it will take the shape of a book this size. However, during this journey lasting longer than three years, I was blessed with the love of an unexpectedly large number of people. These are the ones who get true credit for making this dream a reality and I profusely thank each and everyone of them. If I omit your name by mistake, do forgive me.

First and foremost, I thank my parents, Aruna and Lal Mohan, for making me capable of taking on such an endeavour. Their teachings throughout my life so far, implicit or explicit, are imprinted everywhere in this book.

My wife, Manisha, cannot be thanked enough for making this possible. Not only through the clichd support that every spouse provides, Manisha has contributed actively to the book; teaching me by example the importance of good living. She also had to bear the brunt of being my first editor. My children, Aryaa and Chaitanya, have been so excited with the prospect of their father writing a book. Both of them avid readers, have done everything possible to make sure that a book, with their fathers name on the cover, is present on the shelves of their favourite bookstores. Not to mention that Manisha, Aryaa and Chaitanya gave me enough time and space to carry on.

My parents-in-law, Meera and Mrinals contribution is already recognized above as they are the ones who gave me their daughter. In addition, they encouraged me at every step and embody the very qualities I talk about. My family Anshuman, Simmy, Mayank, Megha, Abhishek, Anand, Saurabh, Aman and Manish did their own bits to help me.

Highly indebted to Ruchhita Kajaria for her faith in the idea; recommending the book to Bloomsbury and finally editing the book into the form you see now.

Words cannot express the gratitude to Praveen Tiwari for selecting the book for Bloomsbury and guiding me though the process so far; He has been extremely approachable and supportive. Special thanks are due to Nitin Valecha for assisting in publishing process.

Grateful to Varsha Naik for her initial editing and great advice on structuring the first version of manuscript.

My friends, Robin Bannerjee, Sangeeta Mall, Sumit Choudhary, Rakhi and Shivalik Prasad helped with their contacts in publishing industry and gave valuable inputs on the process of publishing.

Thankful to my friends who came forward to share their experiences in detail Sundeep Sikka, Ashwini Kumar Hooda, Harbans Singh Arora, Vikas Goel, Ajay Rastogi, Abhinav Suri, Sukanya Poddar, Ritu & Jaideep Bhattacharya, Rachna Goel, Dr S S Jha, Prof. Jai Shankar Jha, Dr. Roma Parikh, Maya Jennifer, Paritosh Pandit, Xavier Ligot, Tina, Rajnish and Susan Jamieson.

My photographers Prachi and Arijit for making me look presentable on camera. My social media team, Abhishek Chamaria, Anirban Saha and Rahul Mishra for creating the website and the campaign.

My yoga teacher Vinod; Reiki Master Ms. Vatsala: Physiotherapist Dr. Nidhi Bajaj and numerous trainers Anil, Sanket, Amey, Tushar, Santosh and Rupesh for their help in my own well-being journey.

Last but not the least, the Gurus, who have guided me with their teaching and training A.C. Bhaktivedanta Srila Prabhupada, Sri Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Baba Ramdev, Sadhguru, S. N. Goenka, Swami Paramhansa Yogananda, Eknath Easwaran, S. Radhakrishnan, Deepak Chopra, Norman Vincent Peale, Amy and Thomas Harris and Eric Berne.

We are in search of happiness all the time. Whatever we do throughout our lives, is linked to this pursuit of happiness. Still this happiness, somehow, evades us. Whenever we feel that we have achieved the happiness, either it vanishes quickly or we dont really feel happy. I have observed this repeatedly in my own life and in others lives as well. Just imagine - You wanted to get admission in your dream business school and the day you got it, you were on cloud nine. This feeling however, lasted for a few days or weeks. As soon as you commenced your course in that college, you got into a gruelling routine. The actual details of the course unfolded before you and you got to know the place more from inside. These details, the routine and the experiences are most of the time, far away from the happy picture that you had in your mind, when you started the pursuit of this object of happiness. You then convince yourself, by telling your mind that what you are doing now shall lead to happiness, a few years down the line and the vicious cycle continues.

The same thing happens when we get our dream job or when we get married to our lover of many years or when we buy our dream house after years of toiling behind it. Somehow, mentally or physically, we are not able to enjoy our achievements and the related happiness. Either the mind or the body is not in a great shape to allow us to savour that moment for a long time. The mind is immediately filled with anxiety and the feelings of what next, whereas the body is often crumbling under the strain of years of neglect. Thus, happiness to me is not only having what you want but also the ability to enjoy what you have on a continued basis. It is the ability to physically and mentally do what matters the most. Enjoying, rather than dissipating ourselves in a mindless rat-race. This applies to all the things around us and the activities that we do on a daily basis.