Information compiled by Dileep Kumar Secretary, Association of Knowledge Workers, Lucknow

1. Happiness, what it is and how to sustain it , in our lives?, views of Sri Sri Ravi Shanker, Mr.RakeshGodhwani, Mr Rhonda Byrne and in scriptures Information compiled by Dileep Kumar Secretary, Association of Knowledge Workers, Lucknow November2012

2. Happiness, as per Sri Sri Ravi Shanker • Today, you must have already heard about the focus moving away from GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to GDH (Gross Domestic Happiness); it is very important. About 30% of the European population is in depression. • There is no point in having a higher GDP and having no smiles on the faces of people. We need to have people appreciate GDH, i.e., become happier.  • Happiness has nothing to do with the prosperity of the country,

3. Happiness, as per Sri Sri Ravi Shanker • When you are happy, what is the feeling you get? You feel that something in you is expanding, isn’t it? • And when you are upset, you find that something in you is shrinking; the energy in you shrinks and that is when you feel uncomfortable. • When the energy expands, you feel happy, elevated and comfortable. And this particular phenomenon indicates that our body is inside the mind, and not the other way around.

4. ABC of life, as per Sri Sri Ravi Shanker • ABC, i.e., Awareness, Belongingness and Commitment are universal. I think you can apply this in any field, not just spirituality, business or politics; it cuts across different fields of human relevance. These three aspects can be applied anywhere.  • A sense of belongingness makes a big difference in the way we function, and in the way we perceive our atmosphere. We need to take responsibility for the atmosphere that we are in. So, that empowerment, that attitude of taking responsibility for our own environment makes all the difference. It can make you very happy, and motivate you to take up more work. • Without commitment nothing works in the world. If it works, then it is just God’s grace. It is just God who is working through you.

5. Gross National Happiness • The assessment of gross national happiness  (GNH;  was designed in an attempt to define an indicator that measures quality of life or social progress in more holistic and psychological terms than only the economic indicator of gross domestic product (GDP). seven metrics were incorporated into the first Global GNH Survey. • GNH value is proposed to be an index function of the total average per capita of the following measures: • Economic Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of economic metrics such as consumer debt, average income to consumer price index ratio and income distribution • Environmental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of environmental metrics such as pollution, noise and traffic

6. Gross National Happiness,contd 3.Physical Wellness: Indicated via statistical measurement of physical health metrics such as severe illnesses 4.Mental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of mental health metrics such as usage of antidepressants and rise or decline of psychotherapy patients 5.Workplace Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of labor metrics such as jobless claims, job change, workplace complaints and lawsuits 6.Social Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of social metrics such as discrimination, safety, divorce rates, complaints of domestic conflicts and family lawsuits, public lawsuits, crime rates 7.Political Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of political metrics such as the quality of local democracy, individual freedom, and foreign conflicts.

7. Happiness Hormones by RakeshGodhwani • Research has shown that there do exist certain hormones that are released with specific stimuli- both natural and chemical (e.g. opiumin small quantity), to make us feel happy. The same feeling of reaching a high state of happiness comes during a roller coaster ride or a heavy dose of laughter or an hour of Yoga, where you sweat it out and endorphins are released to make you feel relaxed. They also bring the positive energy that helps you in your work, relationships and your moods. • There is high chance that a 30 minute rigorous breathing exercise will make you a lot happier than what you would have experienced in your promotion. Simply because it helps secrete more happiness chemicals in your brain that not only make your brain happy but make you healthy.

8. Three important aspects or freedoms to a balanced lifeby RakeshGodhwani • Personal aspect- my work, my body and mind, my health, my career, my passion. The focus is me and my space • Financial Aspect- My security, my ability to buy what I need to take care of my family and myself when I am old and week. Here , the focus is means/ resources to help me • Social aspect-A happy family , good network of friends, status in society. Here , the focus is what is around me, my dependents, my responsibilities to others etc • Happiness= Balance of three freedoms (personal, financial and social) • Happiness is a state of mind

9. Book Secret,by Rhonda Byrne • Do the things that you love and that bring you joy. If you don't know what brings you joy, ask the question, "What is my joy?“. And as you find it and commit yourself to it, to joy, the law of attraction will pour an avalanche of joyful things, people, circumstances, events and opportunities into your life, all because you are radiating joy. So inner happiness actually is the fuel of success.Be happy now. Feel good now. That's the only thing you have to do. • You're a spiritual being! You're an energy field, operating in a larger energy field.

10. The secret to health • Beliefs about aging are all in our minds, so release those thoughts from your consciousness. Focus on health and eternal youth. • Laughter attracts joy, releases negativity, and leads to miraculous cures. Laughter is the best medicine • Happier thoughts lead to essentially a happier biochemistry, a happier, healthier body. Negative thoughts and stress have been shown to seriously degrade the body and the functioning of the brain, because it's our thoughts and emotions that are continuously reassembling, reorganizing, re-creating our body. • Happiness is a feeling state of being.

11. The law of attraction-thought power • Everything that's coming into your life you are attracting into your life. And it's attracted to you by virtue of the images you're holding in your mind. It's what you're thinking. Whatever is going on in your mind you are attracting. Every thought of yours is a real thing—a force. Your current thoughts are creating your future life. Your thoughts become things • The law of attraction says like attracts like, so when you think a thought, you are also attracting like thoughts to you. • Thoughts are magnetic, and thoughts have a frequency. As you think thoughts, they are sent out into the Universe, and they magnetically attract all like things that are on the same frequency. Everything sent out returns to the source—you. Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. Whatever the mind . . . can conceive it can achieve

12. The Mahabharata’s teaching of happiness • Whatever is agreeable to one is pleasure, whatever is disagreeable is pain . Every one wishes to have pleasure, and everybody is distressed by pain • Pleasures are of two kinds: physical and mental. All human tendencies are towards pleasure. Indeed dharma, artha, and kama, the three ends of life, have nothing but pleasure: it is for obtaining pleasure all act is begun. All objects of pleasure are transitory-beauty, youth, wealth, good health and the company of dear ones • Desire is the greatest pain; not desire, the greatest happiness

13. Three different paths to happiness • Indriya- nigraha, disciplining the body –mind: The body is chariot, the five sense- organs its horses, and the mind the charioteer. The man holds firmly the reins of the five horses is a happy charioteer. Who has disciplined himself sleeps peacefully, and happily awakes, relates with the world with happiness, and is joyful at heart • Vairagya, renunciation of the world:Withdrawal from the world is even greater requisite. This world is a moving wheel. Being with loved one is transitory, passing . Brother, father, mother, friend are like companions on the road . One is alone in birth; one is alone in death. One is in crossing over. Father, mother, brother, guru, relatives and friends are of no help. There are no eyes like knowledge, no austerity like truth, pain like attachment, and no happiness like renunciation . To punish one’s body, under the impression that one would secure true happiness thereby, was senseless.

14. Moksha: Towards freedom from the human condition, Kathopnishad tells us: One is good, while the other is pleasant. These two having different objectives chain ( bind ) a man. Blessed is who, between these two, chooses the good alone, but he who chooses what is pleasant, looses the true end (goal). Both the good and the pleasant approach the mortal man; the wise man examines them thoroughly and discriminates between the two; the wise man prefers the good to the pleasant, but the ignorant man chooses the pleasant for the sake of this body through avarice (extreme greed for wealth or material things) and attachment. These two, ignorance and what is known as Knowledge , are wide apart and lead to different ends or goals. The ignorant, who live in the midst of darkness but fancy themselves to be wise and learned, go round and round deluded in many crooked ways, Just as the being led by the blind. The way to the hereafter is not apparent to the ignorant man who is childish, befooled by the glamour of wealth.

15. Moksha: Towards freedom from the human condition, • Indriya-nigrah is not denial of pleasure; rather, it is the very first condition of pleasure. Self discipline is not a moarse, joyless, dark discipline. • Happy are those who have inner contentment of knowledge and wisdom; the unhappy fools are always discontented • Sorrow destroys one’s form ; sorrow destroys one’s strength. Sorrow destroys knowledge and awareness; and sorrow leads to illness • The suffering of the mind is to be removed through understanding, and that of body, through medicine, that is within competency science