By-Two Kaapi in an oilfield

I sat wondering why I am feeling so happy these days for no particular reason. And, bingo - I had a revelation last evening, as I was wandering aimlessly in the corridor.

Why does one feel happy? When he/she gets something that he/she has been craving for. It could be a material posession or an achievement yearned for etc. Well, I didn't get what I wanted(?) , and I also didn't achieve something phenomenally great (except that for the first time I could answer the whole tute paper on Synchronous DC machines). Yet, there I was feeling ecstatic. And then it struck me, the feeling was not something that can be termed 'happiness' - the right term is in Sanskrit - 'ananda' (roughly translates to bliss). 'Ananda' is unconditional happiness. Back in High School, I remembered a story that we were taught in Sanskrit. A story from the Taittriya Upanisad. It's about how Varuna (a sage) uses 'tapas' (meditation) to teach his son Brigu to understand the true nature of 'brahman' (hmmmm..how can i explain 'brahman' - it roughly means the whole reality itself). Brigu discovers the Brahman stage-by-stage (as he meditated more, he delved deeper towards the real truth). It is said the stages were - annam (matter), pranam (the ethereal connection), mano (the cosmos controlling the ether), vijnanam (the intellect) and finally anandam (eternal bliss).

I now realize how immature we were to understand the true meaning of that back then - and how it makes amazing sense now. What do we all want in life? Yes, all of them are material possessions which give us happiness. So, why not pursue that happiness instead of crying and cribbing over not getting what one wanted? This doesn't mean that one quits from the process of pursuing ones dreams. That can always be done parallelly, without bothering about the results. Its damn tough (close to impossible), but surely worth a try.

Till then, I shalll rest in 'ananda'. Man! this is so damn good. I am not doped - but still feeling as if I am floating in the sky. I just wish I knew why I am feeling so blissful & how I can spread this blissfulness to others.