Anand

As I thought about what I was searching for, it all ultimately came to this one thing. Anand. The state of being mesmerizingly happy. The state of being completely captured, engulfed in happy thoughts. Where you are happy inside and happy outside. Where you are not looking for anything else ahead. The hindi language gave it a word long ago - Anand. What "Khushi" does not have, "Anand" has.

But, to be practical, Anand is not an ever lasting state. Anand comes and goes. You move on from Anand to Anand. Each time in search of the next one, trying to prolong each state and minimize the time interval between two such states. 

I have found Anand in a few things, and have stayed away from other few which I think can deteriorate my Anand.

I have found Anand through: 

Enabling the mind:

Travel. So much so that, I told a friend that I do not work and travel, I work from travel to travel. Before my next travel starts, I am already hatching plans of the one after it. Never leaving my mind in an empty space of not knowing what my next destination is. Travel does a lot for me. It opens up opportunities to absorb a new place, to break from the rut, and increasingly spend leisure time with family with instances of undivided attention. It just makes me feel free. Just the way I want to live, until the next travel again. 

Meaningful work. It is a necessity to work, and it is best to derive meaning out of it. The challenge in work is not just to give, but to give and gain. While money is an enabler, the amount of your awake hours required to work is just too long to ignore this aspect, and let it be a waste of time. You have to measure your work in terms of what it gets you in return. The power it grants you in bringing a change and impacting other people's lives while driving your work are important aspects. So is the importance of spending this time gaining respect of people working with you, and being able to generate respect for others around. While it is very clear to many and is pursued by many to gain others respect. It is equally important to find something and someone to respect. When you respect other's life, other's thoughts, other's decisions, other's capabilities is when you find the power and stability within that you are surrounded by people where there are opportunities of learning. Without the opportunity of learning and respect for people and organization, it is difficult to find meaning in your work. Without meaning, the feeling of wasting days after days in earning money will not take one too far and to a healthy mind state.

Enabling the body:

Running. When you are trying to get to a state of mind, you cannot leave the body far behind. The home of the mind is as important as the mind itself. It is uncanny how closely related are the two. A meaningfully tired body gets you the best sleep and throws out all undesired thoughts in the state when you are awake. 

Enabling the soul:

Family. Family and the memories of family. The past and the present. You have to have selective memory, and be choosy to pick the best of the instances. What is the fun in ruing about the times when you acted all stupid to dishearten your fiancee. Remember the times when your daughter acted all brave, and amazed you at the survival instincts of a little one made to travel in a jam packed bus sucking upon the milk bottle to restore her body energy. Remember the times when you broke into laughter together with your family on something stupid. 

In the process to reach Anand, there are lot of other enablers, necessities, compulsions, distractions, that you need to handle in life. There are a lot of choices to be made, and one should be clear about what drives these decisions. 

Enablers of your purchasing power. 

Money: Money is only as good as what it can buy for you. Good home, good school for kids, good travel plan, good amenities. It is best to know what you want and how much earning that money will tax you. Do you really want to go on the next moon mission with Space-X? May be you want to, it is your decision. Just that these decisions add up to have implications on one's financial state. It is as important to know how much can you earn, as it is to actually earn it. The rest of the plan will follow through if you are cognizant of your future needs and the tax you want to put on your mind space trying to gather this purchasing power enabler. 

Necessity to interact with others in this world. 

Humans: The other people we interact with - the servant at home, the manager in office, the team that reports to you, the customer with a want, the stake holder with an ask. All of these people are driving their own needs and choices. They interact with you in a complex environment with their own background and baggage. What is important is that how you want to interact, rather than be driven by how the other person makes you interact. You might want to be in the driver seat of the interaction, or you might want to be comfortably in the passenger seat, what you do not want is to be driven where you are in an uncomfortable zone. There is a reason for each interaction with another human. It is best to know what you want from such interaction. Each interaction is a negotiation. You need to negotiate your way through, to be left with a peaceful mind. You can rarely ask for Anand through these interactions, but what you should not give up is tranquility. 

Compulsion to be driven.
Passion: I have found it best to avoid Passions in my search of a healthy mind state and purposefulness. When you drive your passion, and when does your passion start to drive you is quite unclear to me. The servitude to passion is a big risk you run. You like things and you should be able to alter when you want to do them and when you want to step back. Too much of anything is too bad, and a passion would mean that you would be ready to cross all barriers and limits to drive your passion, or to be driven by it. My rule is not to be driven by anything, but by myself. Thus the boundations of passion are too cagey for me.

Distraction of measurement.

Comparison: I have not entirely been devoid of this sin. But a sin it is. The state of absolute is left behind the state of relative. The other guy is more respected, drives a better car, earns more money, has a happier family, is reaching financial goals sooner, has already grown up kids, knows more, speaks more, is valued more, produces more value, is a fast mover, is more fit - is all relative. May be all of these measurements need to be transformed into a new dimension of measurement which will actually matter, but I am yet to find one such. We live in a relative world, and from self to others, everyone is measuring and getting measured. To find peace and meaning within is more important than measuring with outside. Measurement should be used only when you want to find the right fit of clothes and shoes. Ultimately you do not compare yourself to your spouse, to your kids - the ones that matter the most, but we do end up comparing with the people outside. The evil continues, and this is what makes driving Anand difficult. After all, if it was not difficult would you still pursue it?

"Your mind is like this water, my friend. When it gets agitated, it becomes difficult to see. But if you allow it to settle, the answer becomes clear." Master Oogway nails it, and it is an ongoing battle to maintain the peace within. And ones you have that, may be, you will have Anand!