We all want to be happy. Don’t we? We look for reasons to be happy. We wait for our birthdays and anniversaries to rejoice; we wait for Eid, Holi or Christmas to eat, drink and be merry; we wait for a new car to celebrate. We seldom become happy without any reason. Thus, we find it difficult to sustain our happiness when the reason becomes redundant. An anniversary comes and goes, so does our happiness; the Eid or Holi comes and goes, and takes back our happiness; the new car becomes old and our happiness too wanes. While we have to look for reasons to be happy, we always get reasons to be unhappy.

Sometimes I wonder how easy it is to find reasons for being unhappy and how difficult to get one for being happy! If we could be happy without any reason, we could sustain our happiness even more.

In almost all Hindu homes, ‘Satyanarain Katha’ (the Story of Satyanarain) is recited with reverence. A puja or prayer is performed along with it. In fact, listening to the story is itself the puja. It is one of the most common prayers performed in Hindu homes. The story is very simple and yet, it is the least understood! The story talks about a trader’s family, who had no offspring. The trader wished for a daughter and his wish was fulfilled on his promise that after the accomplishment he would listen to the Story of Satyanarain. But, engaged in his pursuit of happiness, he forgot about it soon after. When his wife reminded him of his promise, he said that since he is now busy with his business, he will now have the prayer when the daughter grows up and gets married. Even after the marriage of her daughter, he was lost in his own pursuit of happiness and thus forgot to perform the prayer.  Ultimately he landed himself into trouble. So it was left for his wife to conduct the prayer. On the successful completion of the prayer, the merchant was abolished of his hardship.

The story may have little meaning otherwise. In fact, I have heard the most of learned men say that the Story of Satyanarain has no story at all! All it talks about is to listen to the ‘Satyanarain Katha’ without even narrating its story. That sounds very true. Now let us replace the condition of listening to the story with contentment; and the same story gets an entirely new meaning! In our pursuit of happiness, we are seldom happy. We assume that we shall be happy after we get a good job; when we get a good job, we fancy a virtuous wife; when we get a virtuous wife, we yearn for a healthy child; when we get a healthy child, we desire for his wonderful career. This becomes a never-ending chain. Like the trader in the story, we are left with no time to listen to the Story of Satyanarain. In other words, we don’t have the time to rejoice over what we have, while we spend our time craving for the things we don’t have! In realization of the fact that it was the trader’s discontent that led to his trouble, we can hope for our own salvation.

Contrary to our understanding, the Story of Satyanarain does not ask us to listen to the ‘Katha’ after our wish is fulfilled, but it asks us to be contented and thank the Lord at every accomplishment. Unfortunately, whereas listening to the ‘Katha’ becomes the assumed objective of every Hindu household, the real objective of contentment is left far behind!

Remarkably, Americans celebrates Thanks Giving Day every year on the fourth Thursday in November. This is to mark the ‘First Thanks Giving Day’ celebrated by their ancestors to thank the God for guiding them safely to the new world. It may be interesting to note that the Hindus too observe their ‘Thanks Giving’ as the ‘Navratras’ (the nine nights of prayer) twice every year without even realizing it! Because of the overly religious tone of this event, we may never have imagined that these ‘Navratras’ are virtually our show of gratitude to the God for the successful crop given to us. What the ‘Navratras’ are to the North India, the ‘Chhatha’ is to the East India. In ‘Chhatha’ the devotees relate directly to the Sun, without which they would never have the harvest. Like the ‘Navratras’, the ‘Chhatha’ too is celebrated twice in a year – once after the Kharif and again after the Rabi crops. Still, the overture has become so highly religious that it has lost much of its social meaning. The fervor of religion has almost demeaned the spirit of ‘Thanks Giving’ that underlies these events. So much so, that even while we observe an ascetic life during the ‘Navratras’ or the ‘Chhatha’, we remain far from contented.

The one who can remain contented would live happily and the one who can live happily will remain contented. Contrary to our belief contentment does not come from happiness, nor does happiness come from contentment. Practically these are the two sides of the same coin in which head or tail becomes one and the same! Either way, you win! In trying to become contented, we beget happiness; and in trying to get happiness, we become contented. While it may seem like achieving two goals in a single attempt, the goal itself remains singular.