H for happiness: Basic needs, fear & desire complex

Dr Krishna Bhatta

(Cont'd from last week)

Happiness needs to be understood at several levels. There is a happiness involved with our basic needs. A child is born in a family. Does the family have a house and can it provide clothes for the baby? Is there enough food for the baby? These are basic physical needs. Only a poor person in an unhealthy society understands the pain of not having these basic needs.

The society or a nation needs to take care of these situations. It is our moral obligation to make sure that these basic needs are met. There is no point talking about Dharma or spirituality in a society that is irresponsible enough not to take care of these basic needs especially so in our modern times.

Fear:

Let us say that the basic needs are taken care of. The family has enough to be able to contribute to the society and the country as well. His child grows up and is going to school. A child has been abducted while he is going to school.

This has been happening in Bihar, India in recent past. One child has been abducted for a ransom. There are hundreds and thousands of children going to school every day. This has a stunning effect on the whole society in Bihar. The fear has gone deep in every parent's heart. This can happen to my child as well.

I grew up in a village in Bihar. We used to travel from Ara to my village Balbandh on a regular basis. We did not care if it was night or day. I went to Patna Medical College in Bihar. We used to go to cinema in the late night show. We did not think twice about it. It was a regular affair to go out late night for a tea during our examination times.

This was in 1960s. I go back to same town now. My relatives try to stop me from going out after dusk. My friends have security guards. What has happened?

Fear, insecurity and suspicion do not go well with happiness. They denote a downturn in the level of dharma. Dharma index in these situations is on the downturn. Possibilities of healthy growth are restricted.

A healthy social environment is needed for further growth of an individual. Drastic measures are sometimes needed to be able to reverse such trends in society.

This is what was happening in Krishna's times. There was nexus of bad rulers and the growth of any individual was suffocated. Krishna had no choice other than that of Mahabharata war left to him for any healthy changes in those times. Let us hope that we do not have to go to that extent in our times.

Desire Complex:

Let us say that we have the basic needs and there are no such fears in our society. Are we happy in these situations? I now live in Skowhegan, Maine, USA. It is a small town. There is hardly any crime here. Law and order runs smoothly.

I practice medicine in a hospital. I have competition. Some people do not like me. There is politics in the town and there is politics in the hospital. I can't take vacation when I like and I can't go places that I like. I am miserable. My wife wants to go to Mexico but I want to go to Spain. We cannot come to agreement.

These are psychological and political issues. Happiness now has come to individual level. "I do not want to be happy" syndrome might be taking place here. This desire complex which includes greed, jealousy, anger and what not is the most difficult one on path of happiness.

Dr Krishna Bhatta

(To be continued)