The Joy in Living for Others

By Staff

Wednesday, September 2, 2009, 15:41

The dictionary meaning of the word 'joy' is that it is 'the passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good; pleasurable feelings or emotions caused by success, good fortune, and the like, or by a rational prospect of possessing what we love or desire; gladness; exhilaration of spirits; delight.' But this understanding of joy is to some extent incomplete.

There are some who might derive this joy at the cost of others, by harming others. Surely that is not the connotation of the definition, which tries to make it blameless and benign. Therefore, to make the understanding better by doing justice to the word we have taken up the other side of the definition and shall try to make a bridge between these two sides of the same coin. There is joy not only in not doing harm to others but also in living for others.

Living for Others

There is no denying the fact that for some people living itself is so agonizing. Due to a state of affairs beyond one's control one suffers in life. Again some people invite suffering due to their own mistakes. So it is not always joyful to live a challenging life for one's own self even. Over and above that if it is the case of 'living for others' it might be more distressing. It is practically so. At the same time, it is the undeniable experience of great people throughout the world that they find more pleasure in living for others than existing for themselves!

Many great teachers of mankind derived joy by living for others. Once someone lamented that Swami Vivekananda, Acharya Shankara and such others lived for a short span of life. Yes, they 'lived', though for short spans of life. Because 'they alone live who live for others'. But we 'are more dead than alive'—whatever be the span of our life.

Our life itself can be a source of joy to others only if we live while being aware that there are others around. Sometimes we use the adage: s/he is equal to one hundred. It may also be true that one person can disturb the peace of one hundred around! At a place where more than one person work or live each should have at least this much common sense that the situation, the office, the dormitory, the home, the apartments, the silence, the aesthetic ambiance of the place etc.

Do not belong to one and one person alone that he/she can live or move with his/her own idiosyncrasies or glorious peculiarities. This much civic sense by itself is a great service to others. But, alas, we are so blunt that we fail to realize that those around us, who live an organized life, are forced to bear with the torture of our senseless disorderliness, every moment.