Father of GNH Centre (Gross National Happiness) shares his secrets of living a life full of joy
Affectionately referred to as “Happiness Guru” by BBC, Dr Saamdu Chetri is a pilgrim of love and compassion. Being a founding member of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Centre, he has been named among 100 prominent people of Bhutan. As a farmer, teacher, government official, sportsman and above all, a simple man, Dr Chetri gathers from his illustrious experiences and pens down some mantras on how to live a happy and content life.
D-day Is Always Today!
Happiness is not an end product or a pursuit to follow or an aim to reach at. It is in every action we take. If our action is correct, we will be happy. What does correct action mean? It means that you put your full energy and time into whatever you are doing without harming the self and others. Your mind will be with the action and thus you will experience the presence of calm and peaceful self. This helps us not to think of past or the future and both of these days are uncontrollable. The only thing we can do something is now and here, today. What we do today because of the experience of yesterday will prepare us surely for tomorrow.
For happiness, we work towards success of accumulating material wealth, fame, and name. Einstein said, calm and modest life is happier than the pursuit for success and the problems associated with it. A successful man necessarily may not be happy, but a happy man can be remarkably successful in the journey of life. Nothing lasts in life, not the life itself. So, reminding yourself that today may be your last day on earth, you will tend to live fully doing the right things, bringing happiness for others and self.
People accumulate wealth for happiness also for the wellbeing of their generations yet to come. We often see the forthcoming generations do not live with properties left behind. It is due to changing environment and circumstances that force them to change their way of life and either sell or leave behind the ancestral property. There are many elderly people in India who have made so much wealth but their only child or two children are married and settled abroad. When these elderly people are sick and or die, the children hardly make it to care or even for the last rites.
All their wealth they made with such great amount of struggle is now sold or wasted. What did they miss by this struggle for the paradox of happiness? They missed their own quality time working hard with no time for themselves, they missed time for family and relations, and they pushed their own real-life meanings and goals for happiness to another time that never comes by.
Happiness Is the Way to Happiness
How to be happy? The answer is simple. You can be happy by being happy. There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way. Our journey has to change to inward and not outward. What do we mean by inward journey? It means, develop your consciousness, meditating, and putting full efforts in what we think is useful for life (and not living), lighting one’s own path, not surrendering to someone but to your own self by bringing together all the senses and walking on the path of righteousness.
We will never know what is right from wrong, or good from bad because our morals and ethics are vastly different in various cultures and traditions. How can we then align ourselves to live in one understanding? For this, we must understand oneness and live in it, as a part of it. What is oneness? It is not gods, but the ultimate universe that provides us as immaterial – but mental and spiritual according to Prof Richard Conn Henry (Nature 2005).
Except for the consciousness, which is beyond human understanding and even the quantum physicists are struggling to understand it, every element of humans built is from the universe. Think about a seed in a mother’s womb growing into a baby and is being born. What makes it grow? Is it not the food, air, water, and energy? Where do they come or are generated from? They go back to earth when the live breathes its last. In this sense, what is different in human from plants, insect, animals, amphibians, and others – nothing. All are from the same elements – aren’t they? We are never dead, but we go back to them and again are born from them. So, the birth and death have the same source to finally be in.
If we understand this, we eliminate our ignorance and thus we overcome suffering, delusion, worry, and these three can give birth to jealousy, greed, anger, pride, and fear. When these eight elements live with us, we will never be able to build our way to happiness of become happy.
Little Changes, Big Benefits
So, what activities must we do then to be happy? When you wake-up in the morning be grateful for one more day given to you, send your gratitude to everyone and everything that support you for living and life. You must practice without fail short meditation every day any time you get an opportunity, exercise regularly, pray with belief, garden, or hug a tree, share your food with animals or someone who has less, teach children living in the streets, try to understand others and your own relation with them, do not let your mind be controlled by others (for example, if you get angry, jealous, or fear crips in then your mind is controlled by others), have your thoughts grounded, eat what is necessary for the body to live by enabling contribution to the reduction of global warming, listen and speak lovingly, any action you take or think should not harm yourself and others, put your efforts to the fullest and be present in what you do every breathing moment.
We have to learn to be the path to create the path. Therefore, it is so simple as you see to be happy but difficult to practice for people who do not wish to build it as a habit, rather, push the idea for tomorrow… Thus, unless we engage ourselves in serving self, others, living in harmony with nature, and realise our own human potential, we will never be able to find happiness.
Check out a special episode on famous YouTube Channel LallanTop here highlighting the significance of the Happiness Index and Dr. Chetri’s role :
To learn more ways to approach happiness, and realize values & wisdom to deal with your emotions and lead a happy life, you can engage with the top keynote speakers via engage4more’s passionate team. Our working relations with over 2,500+ Keynote speakers, motivational speakers, and artists come with an assurance of best-suited artist suggestions for your event with pacy bookings and great prices. Also, enjoy our value adds like complimentary quizzing for your events along with free publicity by our post-event coverage via our social media handles!
Start your artist booking journey here.
