Inside a Little Brain

A few days ago when we were at my friend's place, my little one was crawling towards where the food was kept thrice. On all those three occasions, I picked her up when she came near to the food. On her fourth attempt, she crawled in the opposite direction towards her mom. Halfway between me and her mom, she stopped crawling and looked back at me. Since she was going towards her mom, I was not making any attempt to stop her. Sensing this, she suddenly reversed her direction and reached food in no time! She almost succeeded in dodging me!

The following incident happened a few times at my home. I have observed that she likes to go through a door even if it is only slightly open. If the door is wide open, she would crawl through it, but if the door is kept ajar, she would stand straight, position her body such that she could go through between the narrow space.

These incidents made me think how my little one's little brain works. To put her little brain to test, I made her a challenge taking help from my wife and observed how our little one performed. I kept a room door wide open and placed a steel rack on the way. The steel rack had space between the two shelves which is enough for my little one to crawl through, but not enough for her to walk in between. 

Seeing the way blocked, she stood up and tried to position herself to go past through the door. She cried at first, then applied brute force to push the steel rack aside thereby making a way for herself!

I placed the steel rack again, but this time in such a way that she could not move it by force. She cried a lot and put a sad face as if asking me for a clue. I asked my wife to make her sit in crawling position and show the gap between two shelves.

Our little one got the clue immediately, and felt elated after knowing that she was able to crawl between the shelves and go through the door!

After repeating the test one more time, I found that when I make her stand and asked her to go through the door, her reaction was to apply brute force. When I make her sit in crawling position, she gets the clue and crawls through the door.

So much for her little brain!

Pursuit of (Eternal) Happiness

Some people say if I do "this..this..this", this will make me feel happy.

Some others will say if I do "that..that..that", that will make me feel better.

Yet some others would say if I get "this..this..this" or "that..that..that", it will make me happy.

This begs a question, Can someone feel happy by doing "this" or "that" or by getting "this" or "that"?

Maybe. But how long can one remain happy with "this" and "that"? Is eternal happiness really possible?

Time and again, people's experience has shown that nothing can make one eternally happy. This statement has been warranted by scriptures as well which says one gets eternal happiness by serving the Lord.

Though scriptures are very clear on this point, the human tendency is to ignore what scriptures say. Our tendency is to think of scriptures rules as the ideal which we could never achieve. We accept that we are at a lower level of consciousness and we deserve to be happy only by doing/getting this and that.

There is nothing wrong with this kind of thinking. But the issue gets bigger when one strives hard to change temporary happiness to an eternal one. This can never happen!

Let us for the sake of an argument say that if a person does "this/that" or get "this/that", he feels happy eternally. Extending this argument to all the people in this world, then people from this entire world will remain content with their own "this/that". When this happens, the earth will stand still! There will not be any progress, no newer ideas, and development.

Assuming that no one is bothered about not getting newer ideas or development, one may still feel jealous of other people's "this/that". I may have what I want, but I still want what the other person has!

Even if one person in this entire world thinks along this line, like the butterfly effect, the whole scenario would change in no time. Negative forces such as jealousy, possessiveness, etc are always at work. No matter how hard one strives, eternal happiness with materialistic desires is beyond one's reach.

Wise are those who are in pursuit of eternal happiness. Those who pursue mere happiness are otherwise.