Happiness

Friends,

My second Book on Happiness, "Happiness - a Scientific Outlook" is published and its eBook version is available at

https://www.instamojo.com/…/happiness-a-scientific-outloo…/…

Physical Book with Hard cover is available at https://notionpress.com/read/happiness

Please Click the Green Buttons given belowfor buying eBook (Instamojo) and hard cover Book (Notion press)

Physical Book will be published in a week's time. Then they will be listed in Flipkart, Amazon.in, Amazon.com, infibeam etc as the first book, "A Time-Tested Guide for Happiness" is listed all over the world.

There is another Book - Sozhapuram that won the Gangai - a Translation by me also and is offered free for those who do not know Tamil, who are interested in History, Tamil Culture, History etc.

Enjoy reading

Lakshmanan K

Instamojo

Notion Press

ABOUT THE BOOK, "A TIME-TESTED GUIDE FOR HAPPINESS"

Who does not want Happiness in this world? As the title of the books says, it gives a lot of time-tested Guidelines for Happiness to every one of us. For example, the sage Yajnavalkya had a conversation with his spouse, Sulabha Maitreyi at the time of his retirement (Vanaprastham) as follows:

Maitreyi, an Advaita Philosopher (Monism) and a very popular female expounder of Vedas in her own capacity said: "If now, Sir, this whole earth filled with wealth were mine, would I be immortal thereby?" "No", said Yajnavalkya. "As the life of the rich, even so, would your life be. Of immortality, however, there is no hope through wealth." Then said Maitreyi: "What should I do with that through which I may not be immortal? What you know, Sir – that, indeed, tell me!" Yajnavalkya replied to Maitreyi: "Ah! Lo, dear as you are to us, dear is what you say!

— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.4.2–4[16]

It is the secret of Happiness. It is true not only for her but for every one, every situation, every time and for every cause. For this Book. Happiness is not dear for the Book or its Author, but dear for yourself the Reader. One will get benefited from the wisdom of Vedas, Upanishads and Classical Tamil Literature like Thirukkural, and the like. Vedas and Upanishads are generally believed to be tough to understand for laymen. But in this Book, they are explained with mundane examples like Train Journey, or the like in simple English.

The following link display my Books for your kind information.

https://www.instamojo.com/lakslibrary/ for eBooks

and https://notionpress.com/read/a-time-tested-guide-for-happiness

......for physical Books (soft and Hard Covers)

A word about it…..

This book is essentially a collection of my first blog at https://laks-library.blogspot.in/ . I had a couple of unique issues at the beginning of writing this Blog. First is the very definition of Happiness itself. Everyone has one’s own definition for Happiness. One will change it over the period of time too.

When I referred to the Merriam-Webster dictionary I saw, happiness as “a state of well-being and contentment” or “a pleasurable or satisfying experience.” The ancient Greeks defined it as “Happiness is the joy that we feel when we’re striving after our potential."

We have as many definitions for Happiness; as we have the number of Sects, and religious leaders within Hinduism itself at the minimum. We have myriad religions, myriad sects and myriad leaders/philosophers within each of them in this world.

Scientists say that Happiness is a reaction of some chemicals, one of them is known as “Anandamide” . It is derived from the Sanskrit word “Ananda” that means Happiness. They say, Endocannabinoids: “The Bliss Molecules” are self-produced cannabis, drug that has at least 85 different cannabinoids. We are likely to self-produce just as many variations of Endocannabinoids or Happiness as possible.

Everyone will practically have one’s own definition and probably some variations of definitions for Happiness. One can now imagine the number of definitions for Happiness. I am thus inspired to study what Happiness is all about.

Next stumbling point is the effect of Analyzing Happiness itself. When we are happy, a study of happiness make the very Happiness vanish at once. For instance, let us assume I take a sweet now. While I enjoy the sweet, you ask me how happy I am with the sweet. This allows room for a study in many directions with countless number of parameters or metrics immediately to answer your question. Maybe, I start thinking about its recipe, and its specialty that gives me Happiness. I have to compare with other sweets, other eatables , their availability, time, my health, mood, and the like.

The study/analysis will be endless as long as I can lay hands on some data for its input. My mind will be full of the study instead of enjoying the sweet. The very study/analysis snatch away my happiness I enjoyed. Therefore the subject, “Happiness” has become more intriguing for me.

There is no accepted universal research methodology to study Happiness, although Happiness is being studied for years, decades, or centuries or even more. I decided to study the same with the help of time tested tools. Being a Hindu, Tamilian and Indian I have been blessed with the resources in Tamil, and Sanskrit that are 1000s of years old. For instance, many Tamil classic literature are 2000 years old. Vedas and Upanishads in Sanskrit are believed to be about 5000 years old. I started studying the Happiness with the help of these old time tested knowledge. This is more like an expedition. I started writing it English for the benefit of all. All can learn and enjoy Happiness.

Many readers/friends appreciated the blog and encouraged me to publish it as a Book for the wider circle of people. As the volume of this blog is too big, the same is made in 3 volumes. This is the first volume, with the title as “A Time Tested Guide for Happiness”. This is the genesis of this Book! The other two Books are “Happiness – A scientific Outlook” and “Happiness – Hidden in the Life Partnership”