Saturday 7 April 2012

What is Gross National Happiness (GNH)?

What is Gross National Happiness? Different people will define GNH differently. It indeed is the sum of all the happiness. Everybody like to be happy, no body like to live in adverse conditions. We wear different dresses, we talk different dialects, we have different food habits, we have different culture and beliefs but all those different dialects, different food habits and so on, do not mean we are different.


The objectives in our live are to achieve the goals of happiness. So how can we achieve those goals? Achieving the goals does not come at once. If we are given a plateful of rice, can we eat that rice at once? We can eat but spoon by spoon only. We can’t eat at once so is in achieving the goals. Sometimes, we say we have achieved the goals. Without the helping hands of others, it is impossible to achieve the bigger goals. We are as strong as we are united and divided, we fail.

There are four pillars for achieving GNH in our context, viz. (1) Socio-economic development, (2) Preservation of culture and tradition, (3) Sustainable use of natural resources and (4) Good governance. With the rapid modernization of the world, the minds of the people changes. If the mind of the people is changed, their attitude is more towards the materialistic world.  Nothing can stop the change. It is then natural phenomenon. But there is something we can instill in our mind to achieve the happiness.

There is no short cut to happiness.  Most of us seek temporary happiness rather than lifelong happiness. The short term happiness may lead us to lifelong ailment. Nothing can heal the wound of regrets. Before anything bad happens, we should know what is good for better livelihood.  Being a human being, it is our ability to distinguish between good and better.

How can we be happy? If we want to be happy, we should make others happy first. Then only we can be happy. How can we not be happy when others are happy with our contributions?  To achieve Gross National Happiness, one must understand others. In understanding others, one must understand oneself. Little understanding would be better than misunderstanding. Gross National Happiness can be created, it can’t be achieved easily. We have to make it our selves. It is no where but with us only.

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