Real Happiness

Real Happiness

1990 11 November 10 Real Happiness (348) By the age of 28, Elizabeth Taylor, one of the most dazzling stars of the silver screen, was already being treated in the USA. as if she were a princess. She was followed everywhere she went by photographers, and every single word that fell from her lips was given a prominent place in the newspapers. She got married - for the fourth time – to Eddie Fisher, in May 1959. But, somehow, happiness always seemed to elude her. Her ill-luck was most apparent during the production of her most famous film ‘Cleopatra’ – for which she was paid one million dollars – for right in the middle of the shooting, she fainted and had to be admitted to hospital.

Today, the maximum publicity is given to those who appear on the stage of politics, or in films. But the private lives of these heroes and heroines are far from happy. They appear, smiling radiantly, on the pages of newspapers, or on the television screen. But their real lives are so sad that they are often unable to have a good night’s sleep. Most of them have to take sleeping pills. And when even sleeping pills fail, they try to find solace in alcohol and drugs.

It has been observed that “the most radiant faces are the faces of the grief-stricken”. One who smiles from the heart gives a real smile. But political leaders and film heroes, who live and speak only to impress others, put on a smile which at best can be described as artificial.

Real happiness is for one who knows how to live in his own self, who finds the very secret of life within himself. Those who live to impress others can never find true happiness.

The same difference exists between real and artificial happiness as exists between a real child and a plastic doll. The source of true happiness exists within the man: whatever is external is artificial. A man can be truly happy only with that which he receives from within. Things received from without can never bestow on man the gift of real happiness.