Contentment

What does contentment mean?

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, “a state of happiness and satisfaction.”

According to Wikipedia, “Contentment is an emotional state of satisfaction that can be seen as a mental state, maybe drawn from being at ease in one's situation, body and mind. Colloquially speaking, contentment could be a state of having accepted one's situation and is a milder and more tentative form of happiness.”

In simple terms, Contentment may be understood as, “a state of mind or feeling of happiness”.

The word “happiness” could be understood as “Ananda” in Sanskrit which means “bliss”.

Contentment is natural wealth we all are born with and deserve to have. It provides you the opportunity to be more, do more, and achieve more. Along with happiness, it gives you, health and wealth as well.

But can it be achieved?

Can contentment be found in the life?

Let us understand try to understand this.

Imagine, when did you have been in the full happiness?

Maybe when you eat or drink something you wanted to eat or drink?

Maybe when you pass out your high school or graduation?

Maybe when you got your first job or business or profession?

Maybe when you buy something you were waiting long?

Maybe when you got married or become a father or mother?

Point is, there may be n number of things which make you happy and satisfied but then after some days that happiness and satisfaction fade off and we find something to thrive which sometimes brings happiness and sometimes sorrow. We are running this circle of happiness and sorrow again and again.

In this scenario, is it even possible to live life with consistent happiness or bliss?

To answer this question, we need to study “happiness”.

A human may get happiness at three-level in his or her life. First, the body, like when we eat something delicious, we got this feeling of happiness for a moment. Second, the mind, a thought of a beautiful moment, which happened in the past or imagine happening in the future gives us a little long moment of happiness. Third, the self, the knowledge of self brings us absolute bliss.

As we see that happiness that belongs to the body or the mind is not a consistent one, it brings happiness one day and sorrow another day. To enjoy the consistent happiness, the goal should be absolute bliss i.e. the self. Knowledge of self will take you towards the light of bliss from the darkness of happiness-sorrow circle, that is the goal, we humans are seeking, eternal happiness.

How can we reach absolute happiness?

The path is easy but required patience, purity, and perseverance. It can be achieved with the application of the philosophy of Ekansh i.e. oneness. That oneness could be you or it may include your family or friends, it may be a country, or it may include the universe. What do you take as oneness does not matter, what does matter is that, how do you surrender your ego “I” to that oneness and accept yourself as a spiritual being rather than being this body and this mind? Being one with self is equal to being one with the energy you are part of.

Be ready to live a blissful life, Ask these questions yourself every moment!

Am I doing work without selfishness?

Am I having control over my desires and emotions?

Am I devoted towards myself?

And most important, Am I seeking the knowledge within the self?

The answers to one or more questions may be “no” and it is okay. Just keep asking, eventually, with practice, we all improve.

It may not happen in a day or a month or years, but it will happen in a moment. And for that moment of being one with self, we need to practice the philosophy of Ekansh i.e. oneness in every moment with patience, purity, and perseverance. We improve gradually, and even if we improve a little bit say 0.01%, of course, we would be living an improved life. Be one with self and live life with contentment.