Search of Happiness in an Ordinary Looking but Extra-ordinary Life

We all want to find our place in this universe and desire for a life filled with passion. Whether our universe is our family, home, town, planet, job or the entire universe. We believe in something bigger than us that is worth losing all, whether it is your wife, son, friend, dog or a cause. This provides us with a sense of fulfillment and happiness. It reassures us that we're living an extra-ordinary life.

The above thought begs a question though. What is extra-ordinary? Mankind has been striving to answer this question for centuries. Whether it was an effort to demarcate between ordinary and extra-ordinary on the basis of power or wealth or other measurable parameters. Or simply attributing supernatural attributes to seemingly ordinary thing or a person. Hence the reason for superheroes or material gains.

However our intention to demarcate implies that a difference really exists! Which further implies that there are certain shortcomings that are preventing us from being extra-ordinary? Actually that doesn't sound so bad. Mankind has always tried to create these differences, whether through good & evil or rich & poor or Gods & mere mortals. And the desire to move from one side to another leads to outcomes; both great & disastrous.

So these demarcations seem to be a source of emotions like hope, love, passion etc. Isn't this the whole intention behind Citius - Altius - Fortius? Qualities of faith, strength and rationality take us from being mere ordinary to extra-ordinary. I cannot possible argue against this uber-intention leading to extra-ordinariness.

But something has definitely gone wrong. The mankind has been thrown into a world where these demarcations do not inspire but have become a curse on the very survival of our species. Depression is stated as the number one cause for suicide. Even the youth has become embroiled in a whirlpool of inadequacies that ends in self-destruction of mind & body alike.

So what's gone wrong? For a moment let's assume there is a line separating the ordinary and the extra-ordinary. So what's stopping us from utilizing our mental & physical forte to move to the other side? Well we can't attribute it to human flaws! We've examples of men & women who have shown extra-ordinary strength under toughest of conditions.

So is it something to do with our basic definition of demarcation itself? Let's try to define extra-ordinary. In most cases our definitions seem to bend towards materialistic & extrinsic parameters. Our comparison charts measure extra-ordinary on scales that are outwardly, for example wealth, beauty, profit etc. We've competitions that encourage a no holds barred rat-race for material gains.

In all this noise of the world we have gotten used to giving up easily and suffer an identity crisis of sorts that pops-up intermittently throughout our lives. We seemed to believe our happiness depends on ephemeral joys and material gains. This leads to momentary peaks of joys and crashes of sadness that can be achieved easily.

But what have we forgotten? We've forgotten that happiness is an inward journey that begins with self-realization and culminates into continuous & ever-increasing bliss. With the danger of sounding cliched, we've forgotten we're fractions of God. A God, which Hindu scriptures describe as personification of bliss itself with not even a minutest difference? And it continues to state that bliss increases continuously and is eternal.

Isn't that a humbling feeling which should fill our heart with pride! If we're part of something that's so beautiful, so we already are extra-ordinary! Our demarcations are virtual and futile. We're fractions of eternal joy. Our identity is eternal and not limited to our ephemeral body & bodily accomplishments.

So our duty is to work on self-realization as we inch towards God-realization. However we've to begin our journey now, as students and accept ignorance. And importantly we've to remember our place in this time-universe as an eternal soul which is still learning through a Guru (if we're lucky) or by just questions that force us to see the bigger picture.

Our search for extra-ordinary is a journey of self-revelation rather than extrinsic gains or comparisons to others. The troubles & sorrows time might throw onto us would only be a hurdle we've to jump to keep the search alive. Our search is not external but it is an intrinsic and inseparable part of our existence itself.   

To the atheist brothers - at the very least we can associate our earthly existence to something (or someone) bigger than ourselves. And this association cannot be ephemeral because then the happiness is temporal. But we're looking for something bigger and eternal. The rationality of mind should not restrict the pursuance of eternal joy and continuous learning.

Heavily inspired from the discourse of Jagadguru Kripalu ji Maharaj from the series "Who am I and Who is mine".